The Relationship Between Madness And Creativity, By...

Whether it is a natural talent or an acquired skill; writing allows artists to bring their creative expression to life. Interestingly enough, there is a widespread belief that some writers develop their creativity and knack for writing through suffering from a mental illness. This belief stems from past research based on the relationship between madness and creativity, especially in the writing field. Katherine M. Thomas and Marshall Duke wrote the article, Depressed writing: Cognitive distortions in the works of depressed and non-depressed poets and writers. Their article focuses on digging deeper into the relationship between madness and writing by making an in- depth analysis of writing samples from depressed writers versus the writing samples of those who weren’t. Duke and Thomas found that there is a need for analyzing works of writing because it may provide understanding in the relationship, which will lead to an understanding of depression and mental illness. Due to thi s widely known relationship, some may look at mental illness in a positive light. This relationship may cause people to look at the distortions as simply art; thus, diminishing the severity of mental illness. When looking at psychological distortions from an artistic perspective, this may remove the humanity of the writer; therefore; it is important to analyze and seriously look for the signs of cognitive distortions because it may help us understand and possibly distinguish the relationship between