Gwen Watkins

Gordon Claridge

Ruth Pryor

Ten Psychotic Authors

Sounds from the Bell Jar

This groundbreaking work is a unique collaboration between an Oxford psychologist and two literary critics. It explores the lives and works of 10 authors, among them Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath, who embody both serious mental illness and great originality of thought. The book draws upon personal diaries, historical archives, clinical records, and literary productions, and examines modes of thinking, such as divergent thought, over-inclusiveness, and autism, which psychosis and creativity might have in common. Using genetics, experimental abnormal and clinical psychology, personality research, descriptive psychiatry, and literary analysis, Claridge, Pryor, and Watkins present the revolutionary idea that normality and psychosis are continuous with each other. Healthy varieties and styles of thought and perception substantially overlap with the inclination to psychotic breakdown, and indeed might at times be identical. Psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, therapists, and general readers will gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between madness and creativity from this book.

Vernon Phillips Watkins

The Ballad of the Outer Dark and Other Poems

Are madness and creativity related? Two literary scholars and a psychologist bring a blend of professional skills to bear on this question, first reviewing the contemporary scientific evidence and then examining the lives and works of ten authors, dating from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, who demonstrably suffered from a psychotic illness. For its material the book draws extensively on the subjects' own written words to illustrate the intimate connection that existed between the authors' creative expression and what they felt and perceived as psychotic persons.

Madness and creativity - are they related? Two literary scholars and a psychologist bring a unique blend of professional skills to bear on this question, first reviewing the contemporary scientific evidence and then examining in detail the lives and works of ten authors - dating from the Middle Ages to the 20th century - who, as judged here by the latest diagnostic techniques, demonstrably suffered from a psychotic illness. For its material the book draws extensively on the subjects' own written words to illustrate the intimate connection that existed between the authors' creative expression and what they felt and perceived as psychotic persons.

Ruth Pryor

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