mental illness...and the ideal

Edvard Munch was in and out of institutions for his

psychotic episodes yet refused treatment. He feared

that if he were relieved of his illness his art would

suffer.  He said of his afflictions: " They are part of me

and my art.  They are indistinguishable from me..."

                      Edvard Munch's The Scream

This is a common argument.  Because artistic expression is so intimately entwined with the self there is a resistance to medical treatment because a change in the temperament of the artist is likely to change the content of their work (for better or worse--which is entirely the problem).

Is there value in mental illness? What about when the goal is optimal intelligence?  The overwhelming opinion of the members of this class has been that general well-being/ health must be achieved before attempting enhancement.  It would then seem logical that mental illness along with other neurological disorders (there's a difference) be eliminated as the first step towards better intelligence.

Symptoms of insanity were originally interpreted as something akin to prophetic vision. 

Socrates and Aristotle both observed that the greatest men of their time were plagued by demented behavior.

Eugenics/ Social Darwinism

• Fueled on Darwin's Origin of Species people became convinced that they could manipulate breeding to produce a superior race. 

Studies have found that artists are almost four times more likely to have a mental illness than the rest of the general population. 

For centuries, people have made a People have associated Genius with certain characteristics typical of sufferers of mental illness (consider the persistence of the "mad genius" archetype). These qualities, such as moodiness and neuroticism, are included in a group of traits collectively referred to as "negative-affective traits".

• Scientists are starting to take a sincere interest in the neurological that lend themselves to .

Straight from the source: Two Views

"Men have called me mad, but the question is not yet settled whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence--whether all that is profound--does not spring from disease of thought, from moods of mind exalted at the expenses of the general intellect"  POE

"When you are insane, you are busy being insane--all the time...When I was crazy, that's all I was" PLATH

Plath makes a point that has been heavily supported in recent years.  That being: severe mental disorders are not conducive to artistic vision.  Mild forms of these diseases (manic depression, schizophrenia); however, have been found to have some.

The same gene that contribute to manic depressive illness also confers artistic creativity.

A recent study (2002) at Stanford compared healthy individuals against both healthy artists (no diagnosed mental disorders) and mental health patients.

• The three groups took a collection of tests.
• "greater emotional range"  the flux between two extremes allows artists to experience more
• The two doctors supervising the experiment found that healthy artists  more closely resembled the manic depressives than the

manic----------------------------depressive

Mental illness hovers dangerously between stigmatism and romanticism.

• some professionals are concerned that the stereotypes are reinforcing themselves.

In his article, "There's Nothing Deep About Depression", the New York Times journalist, Peter D. Kramer (author of Listening to Prozac) contends that depression is the only disease that we falter with when considering treatment. 

• Of Van Gogh: "Facing a man in great pain, headed for self-mutilation and death, who would withhold a potentially helpful treatment?"
• He chooses improved quality of life, but not over artistic achievement. Kramer says that we can maintain those values that we appreciate in Van Gogh's work without endorsing psychological suffering.
• There is also a brief mention of Sisyphus and Prozac, check it out.

Controversy:

In eradicating mental illness, some fear that we will lose our ability for innovation.

what do you think?  Is this anxiety only

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This website was created for H0NOR210: The Ideal, a course offered at Monmouth College during the fall 2005 semester.