A new article by Douglas Eby explores how depression affects creativity:
“I only know that summer sang in me a little while, that in me sings no more.”
That excerpt from one of her sonnets expresses how much poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) probably knew of depression.
Marie Osmond has described her experiences suffering from postpartum depression in her book Behind the Smile: “I’m collapsed in a pile of shoes on my closet floor. I have no memory of what it feels like to be happy. I sit with my knees pulled up to my chest. It’s not that I want to be still. I am numb.”
That kind of numbness, that sense of endless hopelessness and erosion of spiritual vitality are some of the reasons depression can have such a devastating impact on creative inspiration and expression.
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2 Comments to
“Creativity and Depression”
But won’t that same feeling of hoplessness sometimes lead to an effort to get up and REGAIN hope? Sometimes?
Depression is just the “black moon” phase of a new creative cycle. gotta start somewhere…
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 28 Sep 2005
