Bipolar Disorder Famous People – Celebrities Diagnosed With Bipolar Disorder

The disease known as bipolar disorder or manic-depressive syndrome has another nickname. This designate is ‘That Fine Madness.’ It was a soubriquet coined by anthropologist Jo Ann C. Gutin as the title for an article she wrote back in October 1996 issue of the Discover Magazine, in which she attempted to lay rest to speculations that there had to be a link between creativity and the disease known as bipolar disorder.

It is easy, just considering the thought of it to discard the idea as nothing more than living cloud-cuckoo-land. I mean, how can you say that someone as creative as say Leonardo da Vinci, who’s works still inspire a lot of people to do great thing in the world today had to be a bit wacko on the head? How would you explain that some of the greatest minds that ever lived were only deluded, and it was out of their delusions that they were able to do the great things that they achieved in their lifetimes? Yet the markers are there.

Lord Byron was one of the greatest poetic minds that ever lived, during his time on earth in the 19th century and doing a great deal to further the Romantic Movement. He was alleged to suffer from bipolar disorder, as was American poet Anne Sexton who died in 1974 at her own hands after what was widely known as a deeply troubled life that bordered on madness.

Virginia Woolf was the British novelist, essayist and critique who also took her own life after leaving behind a note that clearly indicated the depth of suffering she must have had in her mind. Ernest Hemmingway was arguably even more popular, a novelist and short-story writer of American origins who impacted modern literature in no small way. And then there were Tchaikovsky, and Sergey Rachmaninoff, composers of repute in their time; and painters Amedeo Modigliani and Jackson Pollock. These were all great minds that were well known and deeply troubled in some way, yet the works of their hands speak for themselves.

It is a general consensus that creativity comes at times of inspiration, which would suggest, if these famous people suffered from bipolar disorder, that it would be mostly during the manic episodes of their suffering that they created some of their best works of art. Also, some artistes are well known to only be able to ‘create’ when they are depressed, while they are loud about it at other times.

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The tentative hypothesis of some is that ‘That Fine Madness’ that these famous people suffered from somehow prompted them to be creative, although there are people who think it is the other way round. Results from various researches and experiments are inconclusive because they point in both directions. Basically, there are too many people with bipolar disorder who are far from creative, and there are too many creative people who do not suffer from manic-depression.

If I may offer a suggestion, I would say that it’s different strokes for different folks. Great minds are great minds because they dare to go places that other people fear to tread, in mind and in body. And whereas several of them get away with it, several others pay the ultimate prize” either in mind or in body. Following the findings by anthropologist Jo Ann C. Gutin, there is definitely a link between greatness and madness somewhere; we just don’t know what it is yet.