Eternal Companions - Creativity And Schizophrenia: A New Book On Geniuses And Disease - Reviews

Why is schizophrenia called the disease of geniuses? The brain of a schizophrenic is not afraid of anything new, it knows no boundaries, it is not constrained by the framework of consciousness and therefore is able to give out completely new, non-standard ideas. And non-standard thinking is characteristic of brilliant creators.

Shuvalov A. V., Buzik O. Zh.

Eternal companions: Creativity and schizophrenia.

M.: Institute of Counseling and System Solutions, All-Russian Psychotherapeutic League, 2016.

The authors of the book are Alexander Shuvalov, Russian psychiatrist, pathographer, candidate of medical sciences, and Oleg Buzik, doctor of medical sciences, deputy director of the Moscow Scientific and Practical Center of Addiction. The book represents the results of a large research work, an analysis of possible connections between the creative process and schizophrenia.

Historical facts, testimonies of contemporaries and their own diaries allowed psychiatrists, years later, to draw a conclusion about the disease of many geniuses who were not diagnosed during their lifetime.

“The peculiarity of thinking of patients with schizophrenia allows them to consider phenomena from a variety of, sometimes unexpected sides, to compare the incomparable. Autistic thinking, which is little dependent on external influences and regardless of the opinions of others, helps patients to express ideas that healthy people seem simply unthinkable.

Creativity inevitably presupposes not only a certain departure from the patterns of thinking, but sometimes a certain departure from reality. This effect has both positive effects on creativity and increases the risk of mental illness. "

In the first part of the book, the authors provide examples of schizophrenic creativity in literature and art. These are “Rose of the World” by Daniil Andreev, and “Notes of a Madman” by Gogol, and paintings by Odilon Redon and Churlionis, and the film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”.

In the second part of the book, the reader will find fifteen pathographic portraits: Gogol and Schumann, Socrates and Gaudi, Munch and Harms - all these geniuses created not in spite of, but because of their illness. The "angels" sang melodies to Robert Schumann, hallucinations helped Daniil Andreev to create the concept of "metahistory", the delirium of August Strindberg's jealousy served as the basis for writing the novel "Confessions of a Madman".

Schizophrenia is mysterious: its causes are unclear, and there is no way to cure it completely. The fate of schizophrenics is often sad, they are closed in their world. But thanks to their abilities, brilliant schizophrenics pave new paths for all of humanity.