"The beauty of great works of literature can lie in part in the way they take very specific individual experiences and, somehow, speak to the universal human condition. But the idea that this understanding comes simply from suffering is rarely true."

The literary glamour of madness

EMILY REYNOLDS

"Ask anyone with mental health problems to characterize their illness and they’re likely to describe the void of depression as boring, not inspiring, and the frantic, manic despair that many people experience as more disabling than it is galvanizing. This can be particularly true for those with bipolar disorder, which Jamison and others consider to be the “ultimate” in artistic illnesses –  but the shuttle between despair, shame and ennui can move so rapidly that taking a shower can sometimes seem ambitious, let alone writing your magnum opus.

The beauty of great works of literature can lie in part in the way they take very specific individual experiences and, somehow, speak to the universal human condition. But the idea that this understanding comes simply from suffering is rarely true."