The Effects of Diseases, Drugs, and Chemicals on the Creativity and Productivity of Famous Sculptors, Classic Painters, Classic Music Composers, and Authors

Continued

IVAR AROSENIUS AND EDVARD MUNCH

Various other artists have depicted their illnesses in their works of art. Some examples include classic painters Ivar Arosenius (1878–1909) and Edvard Munch (1863– 1944). Ivar Arosenius was a Swedish painter especially known for his for his paintings of fairy tales. He died of excessive hemorrhage caused by hemophilia at approximately the age of 30 years. His painting Saint George and the Dragon demonstrates a dragon that is bleeding profusely following his slaying by Saint George (Figure 5 ). The dragon bled convincingly and very profusely. A modern coagulation laboratory would have detected the genetic abnormality for hemophilia, and appropriate therapy with recombinant hemophilia factors could have been instituted. The Swedish Hemophilia Society has established an Arosenius Fund aiding hemophilia patients.

Edvard Munch may have depicted his own psychotic state of mind when he painted The Scream (The Shriek). Munch, a Norwegian painter, used intense colors in his paintings. Another possible interpretation of the event that inspired The Scream (The Shriek) is in an entry in one of Munch's numerous journals. Munch makes clear in the journal entry that The Scream (The Shriek) grew from an experience he had while walking near Oslo at sunset.

The Scream (The Shriek) may have been the direct consequence of a cataclysm half a world away from Norway, that is, the volcanic explosion on the Indonesian island of Krakatoa. The huge explosion, which occurred in August 1883, and the tsunamis it generated killed approximately 36000 people. It lofted huge amounts of dust and gases high into the atmosphere, where they remained airborne and in the next several months spread over vast parts of the globe. A report on Krakatoa's effects issued by The Royal Society of London provided “Descriptions of the Unusual Twilight Glows in Various Parts of the World, in 1883–4,” including appearing in the Norwegian twilight skies. Munch, too, must have been startled, even frightened, the first time he witnessed the fiery spectacle in late 1883. Munch's sister, Laura, suffered from schizophrenia. Molecular genetic psychiatrists have searched for the genetic roots of schizophrenia.

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The late Philip Holzman, PhD, professor of psychology at Harvard University and an authority on schizophrenia, was convinced that schizophrenia was broader than the psychotic phenomena and that it included many behaviors that occur in unaffected relatives of the schizophrenic patients. Modern pathology departments have established molecular genetics divisions that focus on the genetic causes of disease. In the future, these laboratories might discover a genetic root for schizophrenia.

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references ~ commencement

Last updated: 12/05

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