Throughout history, there have certainly been artists who experienced extreme psychological pain and channeled it into their artwork.
However, it is important to realize that artists don’t have to be tortured souls in order to make great art—or to make art at all.
That’s simply a misconception. Although a very persistent one.
The notion of the “tortured artist” actually goes back a very long time.
Already the ancient Greeks believed that madness was a state of otherworldliness induced by either divine or demonic forces. The demonic madness was associated with what we today would call mental illness.
But the divine madness, on the other hand, was understood as a state of intensive creativity and bliss that can be best compared to the flow state in art.
According to Greek philosopher Plato,
“All of the good poets are not in their right mind when they make their beautiful songs.”
This is how the Greeks viewed “divine madness.” However, things have changed over time and nowadays, we wouldn’t refer to “being in the zone” as madness.
Ultimately, the idea of the tortured artist is a damaging stereotype that romanticizes mental illness in a way that hinders artists far more than it helps them. Being one of the common myths about artists, it rather discourages genuine artistry than it motivates people to start being creative.
The truth is that we are all born creative and that some of the best coping strategies for mental illness involve art therapy. Because both actively creating art and passively enjoying the art of others have been shown to have benefits on our mental health.
Your article helped me a lot, is there any more related content? Thanks!
Thanks for stopping by and leaving that comment, Regina! I have a couple more similar articles that might be interesting for you:
You realize a whole lot its almost tough to argue with you (not that I actually will need to…HaHa). You certainly put a new spin on a subject that’s been written about for years. Wonderful stuff, just great!
Hi Melanie, thanks for stopping by and dropping a comment! Happy that you liked the post (: