Creativity and Madness New Findings and Old Stereotypes

"In this excellent, concise volume, Rothenberg reports his current views on this fascinating subject... Well argued and judicious... I cannot recommend this book too highly." -- Journal of the American Medical Association. "This intriguing theory will no doubt provoke lively debate both in and outside professional circles. For lay readers, however, the book's real pleasure lies in the substantive analyses of Sylvia Plath, August Strindberg, Emily Dickenson, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, and William Faulkner." -- Wilson Library Bulletin Intrigued by history's list of "troubled geniuses,"Albert Rothenberg investigates how two such opposite conditions -- outstanding creativity and psychosis -- could coexist in the same individual. Rothenberg concludes that high-level creativity transcends the usual modes of logical thought -- and may even superficially resemble psychosis. But he also discovers that all types of creative thinking generally occur in a rational and conscious frame of mind, not in a mystically altered or transformed state. Far from being the source -- or the price -- of creativity, Rothenberg discovers, psychosis and other forms of mental illness are actually hindrances to creative work. Disturbed writers and absent-minded professors make great characters in fiction, but Rothenberg has uncovered an even better story -- the virtually infinite creative potential of healthy human beings.Rothenberg, Albert is the author of 'Creativity and Madness New Findings and Old Stereotypes', published 1994 under ISBN 9780801849770 and ISBN 0801849772.