I'll say this. Creativity for me doesn't come from my depression. But. My depression drives me to create in order to create a place of sanctuary for others. This is the thought that popped into my head. We, the creators, don't have the luxury of benefiting from our craft. We place these mental pilgrimages into existence and these places allow others to find solace. That is enough for some. Not for others. It's why Camus lauded the arts.
I wonder if David Lynch is depressed? If so, why didn't he get therapy sessions? How can he talk about depression if he has not experienced depression?
Most artist are great despite their despair. However there is a certain allure of art, born from an artist's mind plagued by darkness/melancholy, that cannot be replicated otherwise.
"Duhpresshun" is after all mostly just narcissism and lack of imagination. I don't mean that they are "sad" because they have a bad imagination, but that they are in a way too self-satisfied and smug to simply do something more in the way of a hobby (which thereby enriches imagination). And it is also deeply disrespectful of people's real problems, by simply branding them as crazy, physically different and "broken", and part of a cult of sorts (the members of which often do lots of propaganda). Also, no problem gets solved, go figure... And it is also a kind of luxury, because it implies you don't have enough need or pressure to actually solve your problems instead, or there are no real, factual problems of particular magnitude. And on top of it: it is normal, or definitely should be regarded as normal to hate, or have disdain for, life, anyway. At least as totally rational and basically sane. Because it is not possible to make a good argument for life being all fun and fluff. That is pure idiocy and massive ignorance, even in most of the best cases (because life has certain structures, especially of age, and there are of course limiations). This view causes hypocritical cruelty, because life after all is absolutely "good", even if you do your best to best to make it unimaginable torture... E.g. in asylums or prison. Or everyone just being d***s to each other. Because after all, that "mental health" babble is partly a substitue to distract from and downplay the general lack of morality, and pretend to be "good" and "wholesome" for a little while. Usually with zero content and meaning. And the "solution" is after all supposed to be nothing else than a robotic, and almost completely indifferent functioning , with the occasional slimy, cheesy navel gazing. So it's better to read a book or play a game or go running, or solve a real problem, or ask for personal support - if you can find any non-hypocrite who isn't just talking buzzwords one minute and messing with you the next...
Creativity and depression are symptoms caused by the same thing. A mind that that's constantly reflecting. Suffering isn't part of your creativity unless you're expressing your suffering.
I have an interesting relationship with depression and art. I feel myself go in and out of depression, and it's during the swing down, I turn into a junkie, where the full of life stuff I make seems mundane. And so I dig deeper and deeper, trying to harvest whatever little feelings I have left; and when I exit my darkness I usually come to realize I made something beautiful that I didn't even realize was beautiful while creating it.
Bad news. Depression would be more tolerable if you could use it to make something transcendent. If you don’t have that, then you just have waiting to not be miserable which sounds a lot worse.
I think artists are often people who feel very deeply, and tend to have big ups and downs. For this reason, an artist could be on a high, and creating a lot of great work, and then be down in the pit of despair a couple months later. People make the mistake of pointing to artists who killed themselves or suffered from depression as proof that you must be miserable to make great art, but they don’t realize that those artists were not miserable when in their most vibrant periods of creativity; on the contrary, those periods were their happiest. You must be able to understand suffering, without making a permanent residence in it.
I'm your painting but I wish you remember Yana. Origin of Yana but I'm so reflective of those hate me for my name. Since birth. I went to therapy one time Berkeley. Studied for it notes gave all my journals and the dude fell asleep I still had encyclopedias too lol up what this was.. David. I still say same thing wrong word. Necrophilia and meant intense narcolepsy... Lol then you.
I used to create something every singel day of my life and it was all I really cared about. I couldn't stop myself. My adult life has been spent barely being able to survive as a semi transient American "citizen". I fucking hate my life and wish I was dead every day at least a few times. I just want to love life again and make things again. Thats all I want America. I fucking hate you.
And yet there’s boomers out there acting like depression is something that was just recently made up when in reality there were even big names they looked up to that were crying for help.
This is an excuse or just misleading. To say that great arts in the world are created by those who suffer most in their lives simply don't mean they suffer physically, physiologically while or during creating an art. Its not at all the physical pain but the emotional pain. When you have a lot of sufferings or bad experiences, failures, heartbreaks, you tend to be much more creative because you become honest and sincere about yourself, about life, about the world. No great art can be created if youre not honest. Great arts are so different with good, mediocre pieces of art. Its easy to create a good art, but its not easy to create a great art. Charles Bukowski quit writing for a decade because he felt he hadnt have enough experiences in life yet. He told his agent he would quit writing even after telling him that a publisher would take care of all his works. He drank the hell a lot. For 10 years. He became a bum. He lived wth lepers and prostitutes on the streets. AFter living like a bum, he wrote. Then became one of the most influential writers in the history of American Literature.
True, but the real reason “great art” comes from suffering is escapism. In actual life, not just theory, artists create amazing things because they’re almost involuntarily forced to use their craft at a way higher level than people who are just experiencing normal suffering.
Whenever I go on vacation, I make something. My compulsion is to do things. My surroundings take advantage of this compulsion, or my own compulsion takes advantage of my setting, and I am trapped working on things that aren’t creative. I cannot stop. I know that I have the freedom to, but I don’t. This is why I suffer, personally.
If you hate everyone, eat. If you feel like everyone hates you, sleep. If you hate yourself, shower. If you feel overwhelmed by your thoughts, write them down. If you feel stuck in the past, plan for the future. If you feel anxious about the future, focus on the present. If you feel restless, take a long walk. If you feel like giving up, remember a time you succeed.
I've been feeling extremely depressed for about 1 - 1,5 years, and I am unable to do anything. I've quit my job, can't bring myself to enjoy any of my hobbies. No energy to even play video games. He describes it really well.
Lynch hits it square on the head like my former shrink never did: depression or anguish may be present in the psychopathology of most artists but it's not a driving force, it's often an obstructing barrier.
The question if he is a genuis or just sick is rude and dumb at the same time. He isn't either a genuis nor sick. He just do what he enjoy and is probably often unhappy because he takes too much value on what people actually think about it. Depression only happen when you live a life which isn't enjoyable. When you get bored with it. Conflict is just a sign that things don't work out or people misunderstand each other. That has nothing to do with creativity. Creativity has something to do with approaching things differently than you used to to create a change. Suffering means when someone stays by choice in a certain situation. It's a choice.
Well creative work is still work if you are too sick you can't work not sure why anyone couldn't comprehend that concept. Maybe they have a golf ball sized consciousness...
