Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament

Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychologist with bipolar disorder herself, investigates the connection between manic-depressive illness and artistic creativity. She reviews biographies and medical histories of poets, painters and composers, including Byron, Van Gogh, Schumann and Virginia Woolf, and presents evidence that mood disorders are more common among artists. She also discusses treatment and whether treatment might dampen creativity.

For readers of psychology, biography and creativity studies. It is scholarly but accessible, with strong personal insight, and it opens questions about illness and genius that are still discussed.

Deep and inward-looking; a moderate read.

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