Strong imagination
Subtitle: madness, creativity and human nature
By: Daniel Nettle.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 235
ISBN-13: 9780198507062
Subjects: Insanity; Genius and mental illness; Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.); Art and mental illness; Insanity; Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.)
Description: "Madness is the central mystery of the human psyche. Our minds evolved to give us a faithful understanding of reality, to allow us to integrate into our communities, and to help us adapt our behaviour to our environment. Yet in serious mental illness, the mind does exactly the opposite of these things. The sufferer builds castles of imaginative delusion, fails to adapt, and becomes a stranger among his own people. Yet mental illness is no marginal phenomenon: it is found in all societies and all historical epochs, and the genes that underlie it are quite common. Furthermore, the traits that identify the madman are found in attenuated form in normal thinking and feeling. The persistence of madness, then, is a terrible puzzle from both an evolutionary and a human point of view." "In Strong Imagination, Daniel Nettle explores the nature of mental illness, the biological mechanisms that underlie it, and its link to creative genius. He goes on to consider the place of both madness and creative imagination in the evolution of our species."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [220]-229) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: From disease to difference and back again; title: From nature to nurture and back again; title: This taint of blood; title: The storm-tossed soul; title: The sleep of reason produces monsters; title: Such tricks hath strong imagination; title: The lunatic, the lover, and the poet; title: Civilization and its discontents; title: Staying sane; title: Epilogue; title: Further reading