And as the Corybantian revellers when they dance are not in their right mind, so the lyric poets are not in their right mind when they are composing their beautiful strains: but when falling under the power of music and metre they are inspired and possessed; like Bacchic maidens who draw milk and honey from the rivers when they are under the influence of Dionysus but not when they are in their right mind.
(Plato, 533-535d). It is no new question that of the connection between arts and the insane. First attributed to Plato, divine madness, many have ventured to try to understand the connection between creativity and madness. The usual belief is that madness is followed by art, rather than art being followed by madness. I decided against this very ample topic to be the focus of this essay, but to try explore one specific route: are societies inept at cultivating artists of sound mind?
Firstly, I want to explore what it means to be an artist. It has been found that openness to experience, one of the big five personality traits is correlated to art experience, and is highly correlated within personalities of not only artists, but people with artistic interests and knowledge (Furnham & Chamorro-Pemuzic, 2004). The concept of psychopathology in artists is divisive, as there are many studies that show no evidence that artists are more likely to suffer than other groups. A study comparing exceptionally creative scientists and artists found no differences in psychopathology but rather schizotypal and socially divergent characteristics in the artists group (Knudsen, Bookheimer & Bilder, 2019). Artists also tend to have higher satisfaction in life than other professionals (Bille, Fjællegaard, Frey, & Steiner, 2013). When creating clusters with people with vulnerabilities such as anxiety, depression and stress and people with resources like psychological well-being, ego-resilience and hope, the group with people who are both high on vulnerabilities and resources has been found to contain the most artists (Ivcevic, Grossman & Ranjan, 2020). This seems paradoxical, but it may very well be the rarity of the interconnection of maladjustment and prosperity to create successful artists. My use of the word success is systematic, because it is traditionally the most successful artists who are able to pursue their craft in its entirety and to dedicate their lives to it, making their work the most proficient.
Artistry is a high risk low reward endeavor from an economic perspective. It brings very few physical gains when comparing the probability of becoming a successful artist and the probability of it having high monetary value to modern society. To attempt to undertake art professionally one must therefore act irrationally, unless they are certain that they will have the basic resources they need to survive to continue their work. Being an artist in itself is making the unthinkable possible, and therefore it is not too far removed for artists to live unconventional lives within our society. This brings me to the second part of my essay. What if it is the faults within our societies that push artists to the edge and therefore to “dysfunctional” patterns of behavior?
It may be insightful to look at the life of Francisco Goya (1746-1828). He was possibly one of the most important portraitist during the rule of the House of Bourbon, using his closeness to the Spanish Royal family as means to critique the aristocracy. Considered to be one of the last old masters and one of the first modernists his style of painting changed dramatically through-out his long life. He went from being a court painter to creating images and etchings of social commentary on the life of Spaniards and the Peninsular War. While his political stance is still unclear to this day, the failure of the establishment of a more liberal government led him to exile himself, first to the outskirts of Madrid and later to Bordeaux (Hughes, 2004). His disappointment of Spanish society for failing to reform their country religiously and politically led him to become fearful of his death and madness. His living in isolation, along with his newly acquired deafness, produced some of his most powerful paintings yet, the Black Paintings (1819-1823). These were all painted on the walls of his villa, and showed his ever growing resentment against mankind portraying scenes of witchery, solitude and death. It was the combination of the political upheaval, sickness and distrust towards society that probably led to the creation of such dark works. Had there not been these inputs in the later part of his life, his works may have remained works of the court only to be hung on palace walls. This is not to say that portraiture is less of an art than pure modernist painting, but these paintings have undoubtedly impacted more people than his hundreds of commissioned portraits.
While anecdotal evidence is not a fortitude of scientific thinking, it can definitely inspire hypotheses to test later on. Goya shows how his inability to fit within a society, even as a well- established court painter, brought on his mental struggles. It is difficult to imagine how many artists who cannot integrate themselves into society, are pushed to the edges because of financial instability, leading them to poor mental health outcomes. It therefore seems that artists are cursed from the beginning, their hyper curious personality brings them to become creative individuals, but the majority of the time, this creative instinct cannot be translated into something traditionally productive, pushing them to live lives on the fringes of communities, non-conforming to psychological standards others have. It may seem like a vicious cycle, as it was definitely the case for Goya, who ventured deeper into the realm of his mind and further away from producing works traditionally for commercial markets. It should be recognized that there is a trade-off when producing art for a living, as it is hard for the artist to not abide by the rules of commerce when they become fruitful, subsequently making art fit with the demand rather than their internal wishes.
Art is a valuable opening into the collective conscious, and very few artists remain uninfluenced by their society. It is then the curse of the creative to be pushed to discover alternative views to life, only to be shunned by society’s comfort in tradition. This is of course unless they are selected to be one of the few allowed to seep through the cracks, and still, their financial advantage may not lead to optimal outcomes.
Works Cited
Plato: Statesman, Philebus, Ion. Greek with translation by Harold N. Fowler and W. R. M. Lamb. Loeb Classical Library 164. Harvard Univ. Press (originally published 1925). ISBN 978- 0674991828 HUP listing
Furnham, A., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2004). Personality, intelligence, and art. Personality and Individual Differences, 36(3), 705–715. https://doi- org.proxy.library.emory.edu/10.1016/S0191-8869(03)00128-4
Bille, T., Fjællegaard, C., Frey, B. S., & Steiner, L. (2013). Happiness in the arts— International evidence on artists’ job satisfaction. Economics Letters, 121, 15–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2013.06.016
Ivcevic, Z., Grossman, E., & Ranjan, A. (2020). Patterns of psychological vulnerabilities and resources in artists and nonartists. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. https://doi-org.proxy.library.emory.edu/10.1037/aca0000309.supp (Supplemental)
Knudsen, K. S., Bookheimer, S. Y., & Bilder, R. M. (2019). Is psychopathology elevated in Big-C visual artists and scientists? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 128(4), 273–283. https://doi-org.proxy.library.emory.edu/10.1037/abn0000416.supp (Supplemental)
Hughes, R., Hodgkinson, G., & Malet, V. (2004). Goya. Barcelona: Galaxia Gutemberg.
Sofia Wolfson
Emory University
University of Miami
Sofia Wolfson
Emory University
University of Miami