Uploaded April 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
✨ Go to betterhelp.com/cinzia for 10% off your first month of therapy with BetterHelp and get matched with a therapist who will listen and help #advert
Taylor Swift's album "The Tortured Poet's Department" leans on a centuries-old idea that the greatest creative minds are not mentally well. Does creativity breed "madness", or does mental ill-health make us more creative? In this video. I look at the science and the poetic and artistic figures throughout history, such as Sylvia Plath and Van Gogh, who inspired the idea of the "tortured artist"
GET MORE FROM ME:
✨ Support me on Patreon: patreon.com/Cinzia
💌 Sign up for my newsletter: tinyurl.com/4j3rhdkm
🎥 Life Philosophy Channel: @CinziaFootnotes
🏺Academic Channel: youtube.com/@StudywithCinzia
📩 Episode Request form: tinyurl.com/2db5a7ar
🌍 My website/blog: ladyofthelibrary.com
SOCIALS:
📚 Goodreads: goodreads.com/user/show/6341226-c-dubois
WHO AM I?
Hey there, I’m Cinzia DuBois On this channel, I talk about dark and ancient history, literature and folklore.
❗️DISCLAIMER
I'm very dyslexic, so I apologise for any mispronunciations that occur when I'm reading scripts for videos. Additionally, whilst flattered, I'm only a PhD student and not a professional educator. As such, I would advise against ever citing my videos or using them as an academic resource: please instead cite references for papers I list in the description box.
References:
Kyaga S, Landén M, Boman M, Hultman CM, Långström N, Lichtenstein P. "Mental illness, suicide and creativity: 40-Year prospective total population study"doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.09.010. Journal of Psychiatric Research. 2013;47(1):83-90. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.09.01
B.-V. Neus, Madness and creativity revisited from current psychological perspectives. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 11(5190), 2004. 58–78. DOI:doi.org/10.1126/science.266.5190.1483-a
Ye, R. 2023. "The Relationship Between Bipolar Spectrum Disorder and Creativity". Available from:researchgate.net/publication/368472207_The_Relationship_Between_Bipolar_Spectrum_Disorder_and_Creativity
Kaufman, J.C. (2001). The Sylvia Plath effect: Mental illness in eminent creative writers. The *Journal of Creative Behavior, 35*(1).
Moss, Samantha, "Metaphors of Mental Illness: How Emily Dickinson and Vincent van Gogh Understood and Expressed Their Personal Battles with Depression" (2020). English Senior Papers. 6. https://pillars.taylor.edu/english-student/6
Jamison K. R. (1989). Mood disorders and patterns of creativity in British writers and artists. Psychiatry: 52, 125–134.
Jamison, K. (1993). "Touched with fire: Manic-depressive illness and the artistic temperament". New York: Free Press.
Sass, L.A., & Sculdberg, D. (Eds.). (2000-2001). Creativity and the schizophrenia spectrum [Special issue]. Creativity Research Journal, 13(1).
Madness and the Romantic Poet: A Critical History:academic.oup.com/book/11194 - James Whitehead et al., Oxford Academic Books, 2017
Strong Imagination: Madness, Creativity and Human Nature:academic.oup.com/book/54522 - Daniel Nettle, MIT Press, 2001
Robinson, Andrew, "Genius: A Very Short Introduction, Very Short Introductions": Oxford, 2011; online edn, Oxford Academic, 24 Sept. 2013.
Reddy, I. R., Ukrani, J., Indla, V., & Ukrani, V. (2018). Creativity and psychopathology: Two sides of the same coin?. *Indian journal of psychiatry, 60(2), 168–174. doi.org/10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_129_18
Ludwig, A.M. (1995). "The price of greatness: Resolving the creativity and madness controversy". New York: Guilford.
✨ Go to betterhelp.com/cinzia for 10% off your first month of therapy with BetterHelp and get matched with a therapist who will listen and help #advert
Taylor Swift's album "The Tortured Poet's Department" leans on a centuries-old idea that the greatest creative minds are not mentally well. Does creativity breed "madness", or does mental ill-health make us more creative? In this video. I look at the science and the poetic and artistic figures throughout history, such as Sylvia Plath and Van Gogh, who inspired the idea of the "tortured artist"
GET MORE FROM ME:
✨ Support me on Patreon: patreon.com/Cinzia
💌 Sign up for my newsletter: tinyurl.com/4j3rhdkm
🎥 Life Philosophy Channel: @CinziaFootnotes
🏺Academic Channel: youtube.com/@StudywithCinzia
📩 Episode Request form: tinyurl.com/2db5a7ar
🌍 My website/blog: ladyofthelibrary.com
SOCIALS:
📚 Goodreads: goodreads.com/user/show/6341226-c-dubois
WHO AM I?
Hey there, I’m Cinzia DuBois On this channel, I talk about dark and ancient history, literature and folklore.
❗️DISCLAIMER
I'm very dyslexic, so I apologise for any mispronunciations that occur when I'm reading scripts for videos. Additionally, whilst flattered, I'm only a PhD student and not a professional educator. As such, I would advise against ever citing my videos or using them as an academic resource: please instead cite references for papers I list in the description box.
References:
Kyaga S, Landén M, Boman M, Hultman CM, Långström N, Lichtenstein P. "Mental illness, suicide and creativity: 40-Year prospective total population study"doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.09.010. Journal of Psychiatric Research. 2013;47(1):83-90. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.09.01
B.-V. Neus, Madness and creativity revisited from current psychological perspectives. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 11(5190), 2004. 58–78. DOI:doi.org/10.1126/science.266.5190.1483-a
Ye, R. 2023. "The Relationship Between Bipolar Spectrum Disorder and Creativity". Available from:researchgate.net/publication/368472207_The_Relationship_Between_Bipolar_Spectrum_Disorder_and_Creativity
Kaufman, J.C. (2001). The Sylvia Plath effect: Mental illness in eminent creative writers. The *Journal of Creative Behavior, 35*(1).
Moss, Samantha, "Metaphors of Mental Illness: How Emily Dickinson and Vincent van Gogh Understood and Expressed Their Personal Battles with Depression" (2020). English Senior Papers. 6. https://pillars.taylor.edu/english-student/6
Jamison K. R. (1989). Mood disorders and patterns of creativity in British writers and artists. Psychiatry: 52, 125–134.
Jamison, K. (1993). "Touched with fire: Manic-depressive illness and the artistic temperament". New York: Free Press.
Sass, L.A., & Sculdberg, D. (Eds.). (2000-2001). Creativity and the schizophrenia spectrum [Special issue]. Creativity Research Journal, 13(1).
Madness and the Romantic Poet: A Critical History:academic.oup.com/book/11194 - James Whitehead et al., Oxford Academic Books, 2017
Strong Imagination: Madness, Creativity and Human Nature:academic.oup.com/book/54522 - Daniel Nettle, MIT Press, 2001
Robinson, Andrew, "Genius: A Very Short Introduction, Very Short Introductions": Oxford, 2011; online edn, Oxford Academic, 24 Sept. 2013.
Reddy, I. R., Ukrani, J., Indla, V., & Ukrani, V. (2018). Creativity and psychopathology: Two sides of the same coin?. *Indian journal of psychiatry, 60(2), 168–174. doi.org/10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_129_18
Ludwig, A.M. (1995). "The price of greatness: Resolving the creativity and madness controversy". New York: Guilford.
