Piechowski-Jozwiak, B. (Abu Dhabi); Bogousslavsky, J. (Montreux)
Machado de Assis’ Original Sin
de Freitas, G.R. (Rio de Janeiro)
Cesare Pavese: The Laboratory of Loneliness – A study of Among Women Only
Steffen, J. (Cambridge)
Dissociation, Delusion and the Splitting of the Self in The Trial by Franz Kafka: Phenomenology and Neurobiology of Schizophrenia
Castelon Konkiewitz, E. (Dourados); Ziff, E.B. (New York, NY)
Creativity is one of the most fascinating human resources, and its deployment in art is one of its best examples. It reflects closely mind activity, so it is not surprising that either psychological disorders or damage to brain function may modify or alter it. Indeed, psychiatric and neurological diseases in artists (writers, musicians, or painters) often lead to dramatic expressions of creativity, either acting as a stimulus, or causing extinction or loss, or simply changes.
In the following pages of this fourth volume on Neurological Diseases in Famous Artists, we have included examples that are often closer to neuropsychiatry. This is the case for Franz Kafka’s relationship with his father, or with the issue of schizophrenia in his novel The Trial. The artistic output linked to depression with or without a brain lesion is also a fascinating topic, well reflected in many of the American abstract expressionists, Joan Miró, or Machado de Assis, while the interaction between psychological instability and drug abuse can be remarkably traced in Raymond Roussel’s life and writings. Roussel’s case is of particular interest, since he was followed and treated by Pierre Janet, Charcot’s pupil and famous rival of Sigmund Freud. In the writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline, a complex association between mythomania, paranoid beliefs, and devastating pamphlet production is also striking, and is complexified by posttraumatic injuries from World War I. More broadly speaking, this conflict was a particularly interesting setting for the intricate association between organic wounds and shell-shock disorders in several writers and artists.
The issue of dementia acting on artistic creativity has already been specifically studied, including in the previous volumes of Neurological Diseases in Famous Artists, but since the case of Willem de Kooning was so striking and well documented, a new address is proposed here.
Purer neurological cases are also presented, such as postamputation limb pain in Arthur Rimbaud, or tabetic ataxia in Édouard Manet. Other fascinating life trajectories associated with cerebral or psychological changes include those of the writers Tolstoi, Turgenev, Mann, Ibsen, and Pavese. We warmly thank the authors of the following chapters for providing these often extraordinary examples of human life and creativity as being influenced by mind and brain activity changes.
Julien Bogousslavsky
Laurent Tatu
Bogousslavsky J, Tatu L (eds): Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists – Part 4. Front Neurol Neurosci. Basel, Karger, 2018, vol 43, pp 1–7 (DOI: 10.1159/000490400)
Joan Miró and Cyclic Depression
Montserrat G. Delgadoa, Julien Bogousslavskyb
aHospital Universitario Central de Asturias, Oviedo, Spain; bNeurocenter, Swiss Medical Network, Clinique Valmont, Montreux, Switzerland
Abstract
Psychopathology has been closely related with artists. A link between creativity and a tendency to affective disorders has become widely accepted. Several studies have shown that artists suffer disproportionately high rates of mood disorders, particularly manic depression and major depression. The famous twentieth century Spanish artist Joan Miró suffered from depression during the entirety of his life, as was recognized by some authors in private letters. The artist worked using several styles, as well as in ceramics and sculpture. Some of his work reflects the feelings he experienced during the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. He contributed considerably to the world of art with works such as The Farm as the culminant work of detailism, The Harlequin’s Carnival as one of the main expressions of surrealism, the Birth of the World as the precursor of abstract expressionism, or The Dutch Interiors with “mironians” shapes, among others. Whether depression was the inspiration for his work, or his work was the treatment for his depression, will never be clarified. However, he left a great legacy for humanity and his work is admired all over the world.
© 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel
Art and Psychopathology
From the time of Aristotle, many social critics have noticed that creative people are mentally unsound. Although creativity is obviously an essential element in many professions, the link between creativity and mental instability is more pronounced in the arts than in other fields [Angier, 1993]. Thus, authors working with creative people found such a high incidence and prevalence of psychiatric abnormalities as to suggest a causal nexus between creativity and psychopathology [Post, 1994]. In the same way, psychiatrists, neurologists and evolutionary geneticists have provided evidence that the relationship between certain mental disorders and artistic achievement is real [Angier, 1993].
A link between creativity and a tendency to affective disorders has become widely accepted [Post, 1994]. Several studies have shown that people in the arts suffer disproportionately high rates of mood disorders, particularly manic depression and major depression, this being up to 10–30 times greater as compared to the general population [Angier, 1993]. In this sense, a specific relationship between creativity and manic-depressive (bipolar) disorders has been proposed [Post, 1994], with the possibility of genetic links, the therapeutic effects of art making, and occupational hazards such as exposure to potentially toxic substances [Schildkraut et al., 1994].
Eminent artists and writers have described hypomanic symptomatology during intense creativity periods; and manics and hypomanics have attributed both immediate and lasting effects on creativity to hypomanic episodes [Richards, 1988]. The periods of either mania or depression are interrupted by long periods of normality in which the artists appear in control of their work [Angier, 1993]. Post [1994] showed that in 34% of patients, psychiatric illnesses had been clearly responsible for the interruption or cessation of creative work, for disruptions of life patterns, and sometimes of personal relationships. Regardless of the blockages and breakdowns which many had suffered, they were powerfully driven by the urge to create. The rapid thought, euphoria, and heightened energy that characterize hypomania enhance creativity [Richards, 1988]. The intense experiences of despair accompanying depressive states provide inspiration and material for creative expression [Schildkraut and Hirshfeld, 1995]. During either manic or depressive episodes, preliminary brain imaging studies indicate that different regions of the brain are perturbed, bolstering the idea that a bipolar mood disorder could be a global arouser of mental