Creativity and Disease

In this twelfth and enlarged edition of a ground-breaking study of the life and work of some of our greatest artists, Philip Sandblom explores the intriguing connections between illness, art and creativity. He elucidates the way in which specific ailments inform and influence the creative personality including the effects of mental illness, drug addiction and severe pain and uses examples of 40 authors, artists and composers and how their conditions affected their work, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. Appropriate and pertinent illustrations .

Individuals discussed include Byron, Baudelaire, the Brontes, DeQuincey, Dickinson, Heine, Milton, Proust, Beethoven, Berlioz, Chopin, Handel, Mahler, Schumann, Smetana, Cezanne, Delacroix, Dufy, Lautrec, Matisse, Mondrain, Picasso and Van Gogh.

The final chapter discusses and gives examples of how artistic activity might improve physical and mental health and be useful in medical care and the book is enhanced throughout with colour illustrations.