Publisher's Synopsis
The putative relationship between mental illness and artistic creativity is of long-standing cultural and psychological interest. The legend of the great artist as "possessed" dates back to antiquity and Plato's articulation of "divine madness". This book recounts a series of "case-studies" of fourteen artists ranging from William Blake to Agnes Martin. The theme of artistic "possession" is explored. The adaptive incorporation of their manifest psychopathology into creating imperishable visual works that changed the course of art-history is explicated consonant with Merleau-Ponty's assertion that "The truth is that this work to be done called for this life."
