The Artist’s Mind: The Creative Lives and Mental Health of Famous Artists

Fascinating and relatable details about historical and contemporary artists’ experiences with mental wellness, and where it and the tendrils of creativity cross paths, run parallel, and diverge. How does art reflect and affect mental wellness? What’s behind the idea that “madness” is linked to creativity? Does having an artistic temperament mean that creative people operate in a mental state different from the “norm”? And why is art often used as therapy for mental illnesses? Anyone who enjoys looking at art, or who finds comfort in art making while living in our high-tech, high-stress era, will be intrigued by this look at historical and contemporary artists whose work reflects the mental-wellness issues that each one has lived with. Through biographies of individual artists, readers will explore existing research and theories about the relationship between mental health and creativity. The artists’ lives prompt topics like why substance abuse is found at high rates among artists, how we can learn about the mental health of artists who were diagnosed with now-obsolete terms like “melancholia,” and in cases where a formal diagnosis was lacking, how artists are posthumously “diagnosed” by modern-day professionals. The artists discussed reflect a wide range of mental health topics, including anxiety and depression, schizophrenia, bipolar conditions, body dysmorphia, disordered eating, and PTSD, among others.