Bipolar diseases: Signs of a genius?

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I was at a lecture at Yale this summer, where the proffessor said that most of the greatest clasical writers, artists, and musicians were manic depressive, this included van Gogh, Byron & friends (meaning the great romantics), and Beethovan. The prof. said that when "high" they write their best work, and when "low" they are best at editing it. And I for one agree with him. What are your thoughts on it?

 

Sorry a bit off topic, but I think its been suggested that Van Gogh actually went crazy from cadmium and lead based paint.

Whatever the case, yes I agree, sometimes it takes a loose screw to challenge and break conventions and make an advance or a creative leap that no one else could have come up with.

Not sure that bipolarity in particular has anything to do with it though.

 

Whatever the case, certainly it's true that the mind of a genious has to be different from others to be genious.

You can walk the same path as everyone else does a hundred times faster and more often, but you'll never really see and learn anything new unless you choose a new path to walk upon. To realise something most humans don't, you have to think unlike most humans do. Just being more efficient (like high intelligence) won't help much.

 

While this is a romantic idea, I think it is a bit of an oversimplification. And I do not agree with the idea that most of them were manic depressive. Maybe many, but most ? Unlikely, but correct me if I am wrong.
Otherwise I pretty much agree with Foradasthar that

It is IMO the capacity of making connections and associations that nobody else before did the trademark of artistic genius. Being manic depressive might be of help, but does not have to be.

 

The idea that melancholy and genius are tight together somehow stems from the antiquity. I guess some greek even postulated, that melancholy is a prerequisite for genius. That thought stayed through the ages, maybe because observation supported the idea.

But in Romantik, it surely was seen as given fact, therefore melancholy a fashionable accessoire for romantic poets.

 

It is quite a generalization the professor made. Most likely because the social gorillas so to speak, are the easiest to spot than the quit genius Orangutan.

Though of course, being more or less insane and still able to think coherent gives you some qualities or at least unfamiliar edges in arts that people without mental illnesses don't have. Of course. Arts do not require much social, logic and empiric skills. So art is the territory of those people. To call them genius is a matter of personal selective preferences.

 

Hmmm... Should I be offended, Noble?

If that generalization is true, then you can expect something mighty grand from this one

Now, to be serious... I know from personal experience thata "high" point can give such surges of creativity that one simply cannot get them out of one's head fast enough. A "low" point, on the other hand, is often the time when said ideas are nurtured and developed. The time in between is something of a... bore.

Sure, both on high and low my social skills diminish (think: "hyperactive" and "Outright *****y") and I am not overtly logical. But I still posess those skills. I merely choose to ignore them.

People keep twlling me that being "high" is a bad thing for me. As if.

Gah, I am biaised, better shut up now... (not to mention the evil teacher...)