Creativity to fend off madness

“Everybody’s a mad scientist, and life is their lab. We’re all trying to experiment to find a way to live, to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos.” Director David Cronenberg

In her article Creativity, the Arts, and Madness, Maureen Neihart, Psy.D. notes there is “a long-held view in psychiatry that artistic endeavors heal the artist, whose work is then healing to others. There are numerous examples of artists who used their work to save their minds.”

She goes on to quote Anne Sexton, who was institutionalized for her psychosis: “Poetry led me by the hand out of madness.”

Dr. Neihart asks, “What do creativity and madness have in common? Observations from psychiatric studies suggest that there are three characteristics common to both high creative production and madness. These are disturbance of mood, certain types of thinking processes, and tolerance for irrationality.”

[Image from book: Anne Sexton: Teacher of Weird Abundance]