Chapter 8, The Creativity Connection Summary and Analysis

At the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Kay Redfield Jamison presented a concert that focused primarily on the music of composers who suffered from manic depressive disease. Featured were George Frideric Handel, Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf, Hector Berlioz, and Gustav Mahler. Each of these men suffered the manic highs and depressive lows characteristic of manic depressive illness, many before there was a treatment for the disorder, but were still able to compose beautiful music. CEOs also seem to be a group of people who tend to have a high incidence of manic depressive illness. Many of these men are compulsively manic, never sleeping and always working on the next big thing. It seems mania is almost a requirement for brilliance. There is also the other end of the spectrum. Many famous writers, Hemingway among...