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Great Music and Mood Disorders... Prince??? Found this interesting article in U.S. News. It is an interview with a Psychiatrist who has studied the link between mental illness and creativity... and particularly some of the great musical composers of the past and their mental illnesses/mood disorders.
Read this excerpt and tell me if it doesn't remind you of Prince. "How do you see the interface of madness and music in the lives of some of the great composers who we know were mentally disturbed? Robert Schumann had what we would now call bipolar disorder. It wasn't called that then, but everyone knew he was touched. In the 19th century, not only in music but literature and the arts, you were expected to have a little mental disorder in order to be taken seriously. Schumann knew that when he was manic, he was explosively creative. One of the features of a hypomanic state is that one needs very little sleep, so he had 20- to 22-hour days. He wrote three string quartets in two weeks, 138 songs in one year. Then he would become so depressed he would shut down and not be able to compose at all." I'm definitely not in a position to know if Prince has some kind of mood disorder, but from what we've heard it wouldn't be surprising, and some of the similarities mentioned here and in the article seem more than coincidental. Interesting article. If you want to read the whole thing, here's the link: http://www.usnews.com/usn...3music.htm -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"When U can't find the reason 4 the smoke, there's probably water in the fire" - Freaks on This Side (man... that's deep) | |
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Very, very interesting. I have a girlfriend who is a psychotherapist and we have talked about this. I once read an article that inferred that Einstein may have had ADD.
Professor Richard Lazerus, author of more than 25 books, told me that there is a big link between genius and madness. He was a fascinating man. A pioneer in his field. He just passed away 3 wks. ago... a real loss. He was respected around the world. He was a regular customer of mine at the restaurant where I work. I will miss our conversations about the mind  | |
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abucah said: Found this interesting article in U.S. News. It is an interview with a Psychiatrist who has studied the link between mental illness and creativity... and particularly some of the great musical composers of the past and their mental illnesses/mood disorders.
Read this excerpt and tell me if it doesn't remind you of Prince. "How do you see the interface of madness and music in the lives of some of the great composers who we know were mentally disturbed? Robert Schumann had what we would now call bipolar disorder. It wasn't called that then, but everyone knew he was touched. In the 19th century, not only in music but literature and the arts, you were expected to have a little mental disorder in order to be taken seriously. Schumann knew that when he was manic, he was explosively creative. One of the features of a hypomanic state is that one needs very little sleep, so he had 20- to 22-hour days. He wrote three string quartets in two weeks, 138 songs in one year. Then he would become so depressed he would shut down and not be able to compose at all." I'm definitely not in a position to know if Prince has some kind of mood disorder, but from what we've heard it wouldn't be surprising, and some of the similarities mentioned here and in the article seem more than coincidental. Interesting article. If you want to read the whole thing, here's the link: http://www.usnews.com/usn...3music.htm It's entirely possible. I'm bipolar myself and I know I get like that. I shift faster than every year tho. More like every 2 weeks.  "A Watcher scoffs at gravity!" | |
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