Posted by Nancy on December 29, 1998, at 16:45:58
In reply to Hey, Nancy, posted by racer on December 26, 1998, at 20:42:03
> But I will say this to your manic experiences: if you look closely at the "great" artists of the western world, many of them have been bi-polar. And many of those who were not had close relatives who were.
*Let's also mention, most of those bipolar writers/artists didn't live much passed 30years of age. Most died from drug overdose. "Give me anything to stop the pain," is our code. Why must we suffer so? My first psychopharmacologist dogmatically professed that there is a heavy price to pay for genius. He had me tested and the results were, as you can already deduce, astounding. I was well advanced acedemically and scored on the level of creative genius. He said that, genius comes with madness attatched to it. Oh, did I mention that I'm an accomplished violinist and pianist? Also, my chemistry degree was earned with great honors in the top 0.05 percentile nationally. Alas, I had become too ill to attend medical school. But, I did manage to pursue graduate studies in neurobiology[fascinating research grounded in Parkinsonianism]. Perhaps, if all does not go to hell, and I finally stablize well enough to function at daily tasks, then I will pursue my doctorate of Neurochemistry.
> My favorite story is William Cowper. He was a poet of the late eighteenth century. He was locked up for madness: he thought the Devil was talking to him. Then he told the doctors that God was talking to him. They declared him cured and sent him home. Sound kinda like a really simple explanation of bipolar? In 1936, the kennedy professor of latin at Oxford gave a lecture on poetry in which he said that madness was conducive to creativity. He claimed that the 18th century had produced only four true poets: Cowper, Collins, Smart and Blake. Surprise, they had all been locked up for madness in their lives. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence to say that there is an obverse side to the torment of bipolar disorder, and there is a lot of information on it available.
> I hope that helps*I've taken down the poets' names that you so graciously supplied. Like you, I can't seem to get enough to read! Finally, I'd rather read about someone else's horror stories related to psychiatric hospitals, than remember my own experiences! Ugh!!!
*Thank you ever so much for taking the time to help me. Please, feel free to drop me an e-mail if you need someone to share with.
Your Mad Scientist,
Nancy
poster:Nancy
thread:902
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19981201/msgs/1841.html