Mentally Unbalanced: Tortured Artists or Something Else?

No really, apparently that’s me. Now, I’ve never claimed to be a particularly balanced individual (it sounds dreadful), but still, it’s weird hearing it like that. Well, nobody actually said it to me, but I kinda knew it was. So did my friend.

See, last night I went to this conference thing about brains and how people think and virtual reality and art. And it was really interesting and I do plan to get more in-depth about it in another post, but right now I want to touch on something that stuck with me in particular.

Well, there were these artists, actors and dancers, who came and talked about the body and presence and all that and then, there was this last guy who was more of a brainy dude. Really, he was the sciency bit of the presentation and he was remarkably engaging (I tend to nod off when they bring out the brain slides), but this one really captured my attention.
And later, during the Q&A, he mentioned something really interesting. He said that deeply creative people are also deeply unbalanced, mentally speaking. He was discussing the balance between creativity and order, two opposites as he explained it, and said he didn’t find it desirable to sway towards either, since the extreme desire for order would lead to compulsions and things like OCD, whereas being...too creative, I suppose, would also signify some criss-crosses in the head. And a proclivity for substance abuse.

And what could one say, given that my own question for him was indeed to do with substance abuse and the artistic brain?

It was a very strange moment, because he’d nailed it. Obviously, it made me think. Mentally unbalanced is, ironically, a very ordered way of thinking about yourself.
You know, it’s a label, it sets out to explain things, without really doing so. Because, what exactly is that unbalance?

Is it the same as mental illness (another label that seems very...boxing to me)?

_{Photo by Craig Whitehead on Unsplash}

Well, apparently not. Studies and experiments which set out to answer exactly that question, show that there is no necessary link between creativity and mental illness and while there are several worthwhile examples of creative people (such as Van Gogh or Virginia Woolf) who had some mental issues, many artists don’t.

As much as John Keats represents the tortured poet, coughing to death in his Roman bedroom, Wallace Stevens represents the opposite, writing Pulitzer Prize–winning poetry while working assiduously as an insurance executive.
source

I think this excerpt from an article dealing with this issue sums it up perfectly. There are examples of sick people and examples of healthy people, shall we say. So no, while it would make for a nice story (because why should we encourage creativity?), there isn’t any actual proof that creativity is inter-linked with mental illness.

But maybe that’s not what he meant by mental unbalance. Given that every Google search on that just comes up with links about mental illness, which isn’t the same thing (not for our purposes, at least) and given that Google is already discreetly suggesting I take a checklist about my mental health, I’m gonna stop looking up shit.

Which means I’m going to have to come up with a conclusion all on my own. Is creativity linked with mental unbalance? Maybe.

The rules of reality are far more bendy for an artist, there isn’t a clear line you can’t cross and the very definition of being an artist is going out on a limb and I suppose that can be scary. Maybe that’s what allows artists to be creative, to be artists, this ability to go a bit further in their minds.

Think about it, I mean, Salvador Dali. If you look at his paintings, they’re amazing, mindblowing. But they’re also terrifying. Many of them are extremely morbid, scary, sad… Which isn’t to criticize, I love Dali, but it must be a strange feeling to put yourself in that morbid, scary, sad place, you know, to then be able to carry such things into our world, to give life to these visions in your head. Maybe that’s the unbalance, this ability to see visions in your head.
Dali was a genius, pure and simple. But he also had his brain wired differently than most people and the truth is there are many people who lack this skill. To go to an uncomfortable mental place.

Really, you’d be surprised how many times I’ve heard from people ‘oh, but I don’t like horror movies/scary stories’. Because there are many people who don’t want to go there. And who knows, maybe they’re more balanced for not wanting to go there…

_{Photo by Vojna Andrea on Unsplash}

Being an artist is a very lonely trade. Because it’s you in your mind for many hours and sometimes your mind can get quite dark. And maybe that’s what this balance is, the ability to stay there.

Because people are social animals, as we are all so fond of saying. They generally seek to be with other people, they seek comfort, acceptance etc. And so do artists, but on a different level, I think.
Going back to that quote I used earlier, I think every artist is tortured, on some level. Because this whole image of the tortured artist, while terribly romantic and appealing, must have some truth in it, also. You know what I mean?

And then, of course, there’s the issue of substance abuse that indeed is prevalent in many brilliant minds. I can’t think of one artist that I admire who didn’t have substance abuse issues at some point in his life. And while you may think that it sort of makes sense, you know, you become famous, you start hanging out with all sorts of people and drugs/alcohol becomes more readily accessible, which leads to addiction.
But I don’t think it’s that. See, I think addiction in artists is largely to do with their creative abilities while under the influence. Because drugs (so I’ve heard) liberate, they loosen up some inhibitions and so does alcohol and often, creating becomes easier. And it’s a journey to see where you can go with this looseness. And I think that’s what drives addiction in artists.

Write drunk, edit sober.
E. Hemingway

I don’t think those are empty words.

Because creativity is or at least, can be all consuming. It’s a very powerful force, this urge to create and I think that once you tell that force that there’s this thing (drug/booze/what have you) that can make creation easier for you, more flowing, that can loosen you up, it’s a very tempting thing.

Anyway, these are just some thoughts I had about the whole thing. You might agree, you might not. In any case, I would expect a couple more posts pertaining to that debate (it was a long ass debate).

Thanks for reading,