Connecting Depression And Artistry
post a comment | posted Jun 14
CASES; Connecting Depression And Artistry
By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN, M.D.
Published: June 4, 2002
Everyone knows that creative geniuses are all mad. At least that is what the time-honored notion linking creativity and mental illness holds. Recently, this was underscored by A Beautiful Mind, the film about the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician Dr. John Forbes Nash Jr., who struggled with schizophrenia. Bedeviled by hallucinations and delusions, Dr. Nash is seen scribbling mathematical formula on his Princeton dorm window and doing pioneering work on game theory in a pub. But in real life, Dr. Nash accomplished his greatest mathematics before his illness really took hold.