“Hard Work, Attention to Detail,” and Paralyzing Fear: the Ups + ...

The strange ability that I have to focus is hard to understand, even by me. I’m not saying this to honk my own horn; I’m saying it because it’s a psychological curiosity. I don’t even know if intelligence can be brought into the equation. During this chapter of my work, I never had a chance to think about the broader picture. The obsessive conditio

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This inclination towards external stimulus, even if harmful, highlights the reluctance many people have towards quiet introspection. I could only speculate that some of my workaholic acquaintances fall into the same category as those who would prefer self-inflicted discomfort over stillness. They continue to shoulder an increasing workload, even wh... See more

Creative people are depressed for a reason8. The expression and experience of negative emotions are correlated with activation in the right frontal cortex (as well as in other structures such as the amygdala) or in other words, the same areas that are activated when consistently being creative and putting abstract meaning to the concrete reality of

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Ballard says that having prominent, successful creative people with mental health issues that manifest in ways that are clearly unpleasant—and a society that allows them to be so—is a crucial yet diminishing thing for other people who are suffering. The problem with that, I offer, is that we end up romanticizing the idea of the “tortured genius” in... See more