{"id":2734,"date":"2010-03-04T22:18:12","date_gmt":"2010-03-05T05:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/?p=2734"},"modified":"2010-03-04T22:18:12","modified_gmt":"2010-03-05T05:18:12","slug":"on-depressions-upside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/04\/on-depressions-upside\/","title":{"rendered":"On Depression's Upside"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonah Lehrer’s recent article in the Gray Lady about depression’s possible upside<\/a> was provocative, insightful, intelligent, dangerous and a whole slew of other adjectives.
\nWhile some psychiatrists regard the theory that depression can be good for you “as little more than irresponsible speculation, a justification for human suffering,” others are buying into it.
\nThe types of depressed people who do not bathe, neglect their kids, etc – those need real help and real medicine. But for a lot of others, the scientists that Lehrer centers on, Andy Thompson and Paul Andrews, basically are saying that “if depression didn\u2019t exist \u2014 if we didn\u2019t react to stress and trauma with endless ruminations \u2014 then we would be less likely to solve our predicaments. Wisdom isn\u2019t cheap, and we pay for it with pain.” That line would make a great poster – I can see across a backdrop of a boxer getting clobbered right in the face (more on fighters later).
\nThe passage below comes towards the end of the rather long article. The Andreasen mentioned in it is neuroscientist Nancy Andreasen who conducted a study of 30 writers from the Iowa Writers\u2019 Workshop which found that eighty percent of the writers met the formal diagnostic criteria for some form of depression. Shocker! She never saw my 300 level creative writing class but it was the same story.<\/p>\n

Why is mental illness so closely associated with creativity? Andreasen argues that depression is intertwined with a \u201ccognitive style\u201d that makes people more likely to produce successful works of art. In the creative process, Andreasen says, \u201cone of the most important qualities is persistence.\u201d Based on the Iowa sample, Andreasen found that \u201csuccessful writers are like prizefighters who keep on getting hit but won\u2019t go down. They\u2019ll stick with it until it\u2019s right.\u201d While Andreasen acknowledges the burden of mental illness \u2014 she quotes Robert Lowell on depression not being a \u201cgift of the Muse\u201d and describes his reliance on lithium to escape the pain \u2014 she argues that many forms of creativity benefit from the relentless focus it makes possible. \u201cUnfortunately, this type of thinking is often inseparable from the suffering,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you\u2019re at the cutting edge, then you\u2019re going to bleed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Powerful stuff. This article had two bonafide great lines, the one earlier about wisdom and the one above about bleeding on the cutting edge. If you read the article, post a comment and I’ll be happy to respond. This is one of those topics that could engender a lot of conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonah Lehrer’s recent article in the Gray Lady about depression’s possible upside was provocative, insightful, intelligent, dangerous and a whole slew of other adjectives. While some psychiatrists regard the theory that depression can be good for you “as little more than irresponsible speculation, a justification for human suffering,” others are buying into it. The types […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[166,293,294,458],"class_list":["post-2734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","tag-depression","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-nyt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2734\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.keymasterproductions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}