18/05/2021
Creativity and Depression:
Creativity and psychological dysfunctionality have often been coupled together. Does creativity necessitate the requirement of lifelong isolation and depression? Can a writer write his greatest creations only when he has lost all reasons to be happy?
Franz Kafka, one of the most widely acknowledged writers of all time, believed throughout his life that all people considered him repulsive. In “The Metamorphosis”, he writes about Gregor Samsa who woke up one day to find himself turned into a monstrous vermin. His sister, the only person who still treated him like a human, gradually grows tired of feeding him and exclaims that she wants to get rid of “it”.
James Gleick, who wrote the biography of both Isaac Newton and Richard Feynman, said in an interview that on a superficial level, the two physicists seemed completely different from each other. Isaac Newton, a virgin, who bickered with his friends almost as much as he fought with his enemies, while Feynman, a charming personality, a womaniser, a showman. Yet, Gleick explains that as he dug deeper into their lives, he realised they were both at their loneliest during their greatest achievements.
Moving away from real personalities, with their complex, multifaceted characters, let’s look at Batman. Over the years, countless comics, graphic novels, movies and cartoons have given different forms or aspects to his cult image. And yet, the central aspect of Batman remains constant. He is a symbol of darkness. All his actions are driven by death and tragedy. The death of his parents, the death ( or worse) of his Robins, his regrets, his self-loathing.
In the animated movie “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm”, Bruce Wayne falls in love and is finally happy. He realises that he doesn't need to be Batman anymore. He had never counted on being happy. He lets go of his self loathing, stops torturing himself and accepts his happiness. And yet, very soon, he feels the need to be miserable again. Batman feeds on his self loathing, his darkness, his depression. He has to choose whether to be happy or to be Batman. And he chooses the latter.
The dilemma of the association of creativity with depression is perhaps the same. If it is indeed true, what should one decide: whether to be happy or to be creative?
IC - 'Batman : Mask of the Phantasm' (1993)