Perspectives on the ‘Tortured Artist’
The link between art and mental illness has always been theorized. With famous artists like Vincent Van Gogh severing his left ear, writers like Virginia Woolf drowning herself, and more recently, musicians like Mac Miller overdosing on drugs. The correlation that many of these talented artists also had declining mental health leads one to ask: does being mentally ill lead to increased creativity? Or maybe being creative leads to mental illness?
Whatever the direction of this correlation, those who subscribe to the philosophy that highly creative people are those with mental illness believe in the idea of the tortured artist.
What is the tortured artist trope?
The tortured artist trope is the belief that in order to be an authentic artist, you must also be tortured. These artists are those who are frequently overcome with negative emotions or constantly are in unstable mental states.
Renowned artist Vincent Van Gogh is frequently cited as a famous example of a tortured artist. Although he grew up in an upper-middle-class family, Van Gogh suffered from depression early on in his life. As he continued to grow up and begin painting, he continued to suffer from psychotic episodes. While his mental health declined his physical health followed, and one day an argument with his friend Paul Gauguin led him to become so outraged he famously severed part of his own left ear in outrage. His depression continued until July 27, 1890, where he shot himself with a revolver and died from his injuries shortly after.
While Van Gogh started painting early on in his life, many considered him a failure as an artist. It was only until after his suicide that people began to question their own understanding of his genius. Van Gogh’s incredible success and recognition followed shortly after, along with a narrative that he was simply a misunderstood genius.
How does mental health affect the way people create art?
When examining research between mental health and creativity, there are reasons to believe in the tortured artist. There are frequent articles showing relationships between mental health disorders and higher ratings of creativity. Those with bipolar disorder have been shown to excel more at tasks testing verbal or written ability. Those with schizophrenia have been shown to have above-average creative intelligence.
However, even with these correlation patterns, researchers recommend caution when viewing the applicability of these studies. The relationship simply isn’t causal. There are many in creative professions that don’t suffer from severe mental illness, and there are also many who suffer from severe mental illnesses that aren’t highly creative. Still, it begs the question: Why do we see this pattern? And how can we explain it?
Unfortunately, the answers aren’t very satisfying. Creativity is one of the hardest traits to measure, and it’s measured differently across different studies. For now, one can only hypothesize that both creativity and mental illness are small pieces of the puzzle that make up an artist.
One thing to note is that sometimes artists mistake predispositions to mental illness for the illnesses themselves. Researcher Daniel Nettle from the University of Newcastle emphasizes a difference between psychosis and psychoticism. Psychosis is being actually mentally ill and psychoticism is existing on a spectrum that predicts one’s predisposition to psychosis. It’s important to make this distinction every time we hear our favorite artists discuss their personal struggles. “Going through a rough time” doesn’t always mean that artists are mentally ill, and may suggest a predisposition instead.
Societal Implications
With the prevalence of the tortured artist trope, it’s important to think about how this shapes our society. Suddenly being depressed or anxious isn’t seen as something wrong, but rather something one must accept in order to be successful as a creative. It’s troubling to think about how this change in perception will affect the youth who look up to artists as inspirations.
But a relationship does exist, and acknowledging a link between mental illness and creativity brings to light a very important question: do we work to treat the mental illness in artists or do we encourage them to embrace who they are in the context of making art?
The latter seems to be a convincing argument. Part of acknowledging the presence of mental illness in art is normalizing it. I believe this can be really powerful in reminding people that while psychosis isn’t a requirement to become an artist, it’s something even the people we look to struggle with. If an artist is struggling with mental health, there’s nothing wrong with admitting it and seeking help. It’s when psychosis gets mistaken as mood swings or having a rough day that things become problematic.
Personal Thoughts
I’ll admit that when I first heard the idea of a tortured artist, it made a lot of sense. As someone who goes through seemingly erratic spurts of creative writing, looking back I suddenly realized that many of the times I felt the most inspired was when I felt distressed. But I didn’t feel like the sadness was a prerequisite to authentic writing, but rather a motivator.
In the field of mental health, most researchers are interested in the question of what leads mental illness to occur. We don’t stop to consider the fact that what makes us mentally healthy is an equally interesting question.
“Essentially, it’s much easier to notice when something is wrong than when something is right.”
I find this phenomenon to link very closely with the tortured artist trope; we may feel more motivated to create art when we feel in distress and want to resolve it, yet we’re equally capable of creating art when we feel perfectly content.
Mental illness serves as a motivator that drives people to make art, but it is not a requirement. So let’s encourage everyone to be an artist, and support the ones who are suffering with their mental health.
