Conventionally, people believe that
writer’s are introverted or lonely. That they have an eccentric behavior with
diminished social skills and an intense interior life much more vivid than the
average person. It is a largely romanticized conception; however, it may have
real support. The writer as a human
being, in essence mentally deranged, is far from being a cliché. For the
contrary, they might be not far away from diseases such as schizophrenia and
bipolar disorder. They have twice as likely to commit suicide.
According
to research carried out by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, there
is a link between mental illness and people with creative occupations. They
analyzed data belonging to just over 1 million people with some kind of mental
disorder like schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, alcoholism, drug addiction,
autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anorexia and suicide. They
found that there is correlation between any of these and artistic activities. As reported by scientists, bipolar disorder
was the only diagnosis that prevailed among patients who were engaged in any
artistic career. Besides, a previous study found that families with a history
of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder tended to generate creative people.
Nevertheless,
if they just take into account the data of the writer, they observed an
over-representation of patients with schizophrenia, depression, bipolar,
anxiety and substance abuse problems. The result of this was that authors
showed almost twice as likely to commit suicide compared with the rest of the
population. In addition, close relatives of people with this mental illness are
also more likely to develop in any artistic field.
In
conclusion, even if studies like this reinforce the cliché around the figure of
the writer as a human being mentally unbalanced, they also show us that the
social perception of mental illness forget that a person in such conditions is not
necessarily a dysfunctional person.
I
do believe that there is a connection between mental disorders and writers. In
Chile, there are authors like Pablo de Rokha or Rodrigo Lira who committed
suicide. Do you agree that there is a connection? Do you know about other cases
in which writers had committed suicide?
Pablo de Rokha
Rodrigo Lira
