Do you have to be disturbed to be an artist?

Artists have often been portrayed in movies, plays and novels as being emotionally disturbed. Nicole Kidman won an Oscar a few years back for her depiction of Virginia Woolf as a writer suffering from bipolar disorder in the film, Hours. Indeed, it has become common to think of artists as being more disturbed than the average person, but is it true?

A psychologist (Ludwig 1996) did a comparative study of emotional disturbances among artists and nonartists, showing that disturbances were far more common among artists.

He found that 60 percent of actors and 41 percent of novelists were alcoholics. However, only Three percent of scientist and 10 percent of military officers were alcoholics. Likewise 17 percent of actors and 13 percent of poets suffered from bipolar disorder (formerly known as manic depression), while only one percent of scientists did so.

Goodwin and Jamison (1990), uncovered impressive evidence of a link between creativity and depression or manic depression. The list of writers who suffered from it includes not only Virginia Woolf, but also Gertrude Stein, Fydor Dostoyevsky, William Shakespeare, Pablo Picasso, Tennessee Williams, Ernest Hemingway, William Styron, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Herman Melville, Eugene O’Neill, Henry James and Honore de Balzac.

Composers who suffered from these disorders include Robert Shuman, Hector Berloiz and George Friederic Handel (who wrote The Messiah in 24 manic days); artists include Vincent van Gogh and Salvador Dali; and poets include Poe, Tennyson, Byron, Shelly and Coleridge.

These studies also suggest several theories explaining why creative people are more disposed to mental illness. The theory that makes most sense to me is the one that focuses on a combination of genetic and environmental influences. Creative peole seem to be born with more delecate senses—an ear for music, an eye for color and design, a mind that sees beneath the facades of daily life. This genetic sensitivity renders them more susceptible to becoming traumatized by environmental events.

An event such as the loss of a mother at an early age, which might cause an average person to become somewhat disturbed, might have an even greater effect on a creative person with greater sensitivity.

However, the same sensitivity that makes artists more vulnerable to stress also makes them good therapy candidates. Among all the patients I have seen over the years, creative people have usually made the most rapid advances in therapy.