Famous writers with mental disorders

It does not seem a coincidence that there are so many writers with mental disorders. Well, it has already been heard that creative people have a greater propensity to suffer from mental problems.

However, some writers have gained greater recognition than others because - in addition to having written wonderful works that have become literary jewels with the passing of time - there has also been news of their mental conditions.

And, as we said, this fact does not seem like a coincidence. Plato had already mentioned Four types of "follies": poetics, prophetic, ritual and erotic.

Therefore, when expressing himself on poetry, this Greek philosopher came to say:

"The poets are not with cold blood when they make up their beautiful odes, but ... they enter rage and are dragged by an enthusiasm ... the poet is unable to produce while enthusiasm does not drag him out of himself".

Some authors agree that: "To create you have to go into dark areas, flee from the known and walk to stores between Movedizas sands".

In addition, they add:

"It is common for depression to be the prelude to which the creative response germinates".

Having these points as a preamble, it is worth knowing some writers with mental disorders, whose literary production has been brilliant, but their private lives, beyond the pen, not so much.

Content

• Writers with mental disorders
  • Sylvia Path
  • León Tolstoy
  • Virginia Woolf
  • Friedrich Nietzsche
  • Franz Kafka
  • Zelda Fitzgerald
  • Bibliography

Writers with mental disorders

Sylvia Path

This author plays the issue of death in her poetry, then, He is not afraid to play with the word that refers to the end of life.

On the contrary, for Path, death was a kind of "rebirth". It is known that Sylvia lived strong depressive episodes in which her hospitalization was merited.

Path also received shock therapy and was treated by different specialists. But, his mental torture had no end. She died after several suicide attempts.

His first attempt occurred when university began. However, he could recover and graduated from honors.

Finally, he took his life suffocating with gas. Today it is thought that this author suffered bipolar disorder, which is treated with medication. Path is a key icon among writers with mental disorders.

León Tolstoy

Tolstobo also looked against hopelessness and depression. He came to confess that he did not have the necessary value to commit suicide, which he considered a moral failure.

Despite this, he had a long life, then, he came to live until the age of 82. He died of a pneumonia after abandoning his lifestyle of the aristocracy.

Although he came to experience a feeling of vacuum, later He became a very spiritual person and dismissed his entire previous work.

Virginia Woolf

Any list of writers with mental disorders must include Virginia Woolf, who suffered from terrible depressive paintings, increasingly unbearable, which took her one day to fill her pockets with stones and dive into a river.

Before dying, she wrote to her husband:

“I feel that I'm going to go crazy again… I start hearing voices, and I can't concentrate. So I do what I think can do."

His most representative works have been "the waves" and "Mrs. Dalloway". Currently, it is considered that he suffered from bipolar disorder.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche's extraordinary capacity was interrupted with his mental landslides.

Although there are many theories about the decline of this remarkable philosopher, some suggest that he suffered from syphilis, while others speculate that it was a meningioma.

However, in the letters that Nietzsche wrote for his friends, some scholars have noticed indications of megalomania and dementia.

Nietzsche's works were, and they continue to be radical. Some of them are: "The sunset of idols", "The Antichrist" and "Ecce Homo ".

Franz Kafka

Kafka's works reflect his lonely inner world. One of the most remarkable is "metamorphosis".

Although Kafka died of tuberculosis, his life was a complete disappointment. He suffered from insomnia, social anxiety, migraines and depression.

The characters of his novels, perhaps, are only a reflection of the spectra they inhabited in their unconscious.

Zelda Fitzgerald

Zelda was a American writer, dancer and celebrity who became an icon of the 20s. Although his life has been very striking, and was characterized by festivities and luxuries, his death was very tragic.

Zelda was the wife of the famous writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, but Neither the notoriety of the couple, nor the rub shoulder with celebrities prevented him from living full of anguish.

This author was diagnosed with schizophrenia and died in a sanatorium, since she could not flee from a fire that occurred in the kitchen. Well, Zelda was locked in her room, waiting for electroshock therapy.

In addition to these authors, there are also other writers with mental disorders, whose lives were full of horror.

A remarkable case was that of HP Lovecraft, who is said to suffer from parasomnia or night horrors.

Is this a sample that all writers truly have mental disorders? What do you think?

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Bibliography

• Capponi, r. (1987). Psychiatric psychopathology and semiology. Psychiatric psychopathology and psychiatric psychiatology and psychiatric semiology.
• Chávez, r. TO., & Del Carmen Lara, M. (2000). Creativity and psychopathology. Mental health.
• Díaz Curiel, J. (2013). Creative process, art and psychopathology. Magazine of the Spanish Association of Neuropsychiatry.
• Guilera, ll. (2011). Anatomy of creativity. In Sabadell. Fundit