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

Written by Paul L. Wolf MD

Michelangelo dissected numerous human bodies, beginning at the age of 18 years. The dissections occurred in the monastery of Santo Spirato in Florence, where the corpses originated from various hospitals. The anatomic accuracy of his figures is due to his dissection and his observations. In the painting The Creation of Adam (Figure 4 ) in the Sistine Chapel, an irregular circular structure appears surrounding God and the angels. One interpretation of the irregular circular structure is compatible with the shape of the human brain.⁸ However, others disagree and believe the circular structure surrounding God and the angels represents the human heart. At the left of the circle there is a cleavage, possibly separating the right and left ventricles. At the top right is a tubular structure, which may represent the aorta exiting from the left ventricle. Thus, the speculation persists that if it represents a brain, it suggests that God is giving Adam an intellect or a soul. If it is a representation of a heart, God is initiating in Adam the beginning of a cardiovascular system and life, and is thereby giving Adam the "spark of life."

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.

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.

VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)

The Chemistry of His Yellow Vision

The color yellow fascinated the Dutch postimpressionist painter, Vincent van Gogh, in the last years of his life. His house was entirely yellow. He wrote How Beautiful Yellow Is, and all of his paintings in these years were dominated by yellow. Van Gogh's preference for the color yellow may have been that he simply liked the color (Figure 6 ). However, 2 speculations exist that his yellow vision was caused by overmedication with digitalis or excessive ingestion of the liqueur absinthe. The drink contains the chemical thujone. Distilled from plants such as wormwood, thujone poisons the nervous system. The chemistry of the effect of digitalis and thujone resulting in yellow vision has been identified. It also should be noted, prior to the discussion of van Gogh's yellow vision, that many clinicians have reviewed the medical and psychiatric problems of the painter posthumously, diagnosing him with a range of disorders, including epilepsy, schizophrenia, digitalis and absinthe poisoning, manic-depressive psychosis, acute intermittent porphyria. Psychiatrist Kay R. Jamison, PhD, believes that van Gogh's symptoms, the natural course of his illness, and his family psychiatric history strongly indicate manic-depressive illness. It is also possible that he suffered from both epilepsy and manic-depressive illness.⁹ If lithium carbonate had been available in the 19th century, it might have helped Van Gogh.

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