This day in history: Vincent van Gogh shot himself on this day in 1890. This man was an alcoholic who previously cut off his own ear. His most famous piece was painted inside an insane asylum. Van Gogh was of course not the only "tortured" artist. His friend, the suicidal Paul Gaugin suffered from severe bouts of depression, as did Michelangelo, Mark Rothko, and Nicolas de Staël. Richard Dadd believed his father was the devil and that he was taken hostage by the ancient Egyptian god Osiris. Georgia O’Keefe suffered a nervous breakdown, as did Edvard Munch. However, if you check any list, Van Gogh was the most tortured artist in history.
A study by Dr. Kári Stefánsson, a neurologist and CEO of a biological research company called deCODE Genetics found that creative people were 17 percent more likely to carry the variants for mental illness than noncreative types.
"A 2012 study in the Journal of Psychiatric Research found that creative professionals are 8 percent more likely than the general population to be bipolar. Writers are especially vulnerable, the researchers say, being 120 percent more prone to suffer from bipolar disorder. Writers were also more likely to abuse substances and take their own lives."~Jessica Hullinger
"Artists, according to one recent study, are now considered to be 25% more likely to carry genes for mental illness. And artists can become dependent on the anti-social practice of art-making as a substitute for socialized behavior and mental health. Art-making can, in fact, become a dangerous surrogate and addiction, one that can lead to burn-out and suicidal ideation."~Psychology Today
Charles W. Pilgrim has an excellent 1893 article also posted on this site on Genius and Suicide: "WINSLOW, in his Anatomy of Suicide, says, 'A person who accustoms himself to live in a world created by his own fancy, who surrounds himself with flimsy idealities, will, in the course of time, cease to sympathize with the gross realities of life,' and any one who will take the trouble to read the biographies of men of genius will see that this statement is borne out to a remarkable degree."
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