Art and Madness

Art and Madness The suicides of literary geniuses Sylvia Plath and Sarah Kane have sparked debate and intrigue over the relationship between art and madness. Their connection is complex and unresolved. However, through historical and scientific evidence, greater insight can be gained into Plath and Kane’s suicides. The literary debate over the connection between creativity and insanity is rooted in anecdotes about eccentricities and peculiarities of behavior, found in biographical and historical records. The traditional view comes from ancient Greece, where Socrates and Plato stated that poetic genius was inseparable from madness. Socrates believed the poet has “no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses,” and Plato said that the poetry of the sane “is beaten all hollow by the poetry of madmen” (Hershman and Lieb, Manic Depression and Creativity, 8). Even eighteenth-century rationalists, who honored sanity and intelligence, continued to credit the latter to temporary insanity.

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