Name: Divine Madness
Author:
Jeffery A. Kottler
Publishers:
JOSSEY-BASS, 2006, A Wiley Imprint
Reviewed by:
Restoring the Mind
Whether we want to
accept the obvious or not, the fact is that
we all discriminate – it is in our nature to
discriminate. We adore almost everything
that we discern as beautiful but we hesitate
to hold the same feelings for something that
we consider as ugly. The mind is selective
in its choices and preferences; it becomes
fascinated by beauty and beautiful things.
The mind is actually a pleasure seeker and
is almost always readily seduced by
beauty. The real source of enjoyment that we
seek and achieve from beauty is coherence.
It is the coherence within the beauty that
makes the seduction so successful.
There exist deeper relations between the
mind and beauty, which is shown by the
antipathy for ugliness and incoherence. We
can say with certainty that beauty would not
be beauty unless it encompasses and
possesses coherence. Being coherent is a
skill that is learnt, which when fully
accomplished and mastered becomes an art.
And those who manage to dedicate their lives
to mastering this art professionally are
rewarded and revered by society. We admire
their skilfulness and ingenuity. They make
the art look so easy (what we see as almost
impossible) – perhaps too easy. Maybe it is
their courage to persevere to attain these
skills that we deify.
By skill I mean skills
of communicating ideas, in innovative and
creative ways,
but even more importantly in a lucid and
coherent manner. Often the most brilliant
ideas are not taken up because the
individual expressing the idea does not have
the skills to convey them coherently and
skilfully. It is why humanity has always
endeared and valued creative geniuses who
are lucid and coherent, who have shown
determination and strength of the mind in
the face of much adversity. There have been
many individuals in history who have boldly
and bravely chosen to elevate creativity to
its ultimate heights. We have idolised them
for their genius and extraordinary creative
abilities.
As I have argued, creativity is the
ultimate goal of the human mind. But
“extraordinary creativity comes with a price
tag” that not everyone will be willing to
pay. Jeffery A. Kottler, in his book ‘Divine
Madness’ (JOSSEY-BASS, 2006, A Wiley
Imprint), has illustrated how some
extraordinary creative geniuses have
struggled with their sanity (or insanity)
throughout their lives. It is worth noting
that the creative geniuses are much more
sensitive and much more fine-tuned to their
senses than the rest of us. Kottler
explains: “One difference between
creative geniuses and rest of us is that
they are more willing to trust their inner
voices even when others might caution
otherwise”.
The book ‘Divine Madness’ tells ten
stories of creative struggle,
illustrating how these extraordinary and
creative ten people (of whom almost all are
artists in one form or another) juggled
creativity with divine madness. It is an
excellent book that highlights the suffering
and pain that coexists in parallel with
extraordinary creativity, resulting in
intense suffering after each episode of
extraordinary creativity. Such experiences
of suffering are exceptionally rare and
there are many more cases which also show
that creative people have managed to live
normal lives (something that was not shown
by example in the book). However, the book
does have a point to prove and that is
nothing in life is free and that there is
always a price to pay somewhere along the
way, particularly when you are an
extraordinarily creative – and are in
“extreme deviation from the norm”.
The importance of creativity cannot be
underestimated. Creativity not only protects
the mind from insanity, it nourishes the
mind. It is creativity that restores the
mind. I publish below a few paragraphs from
the book, which in my view illustrate the
thesis of Divine Madness (JOSSEY-BASS,
2006, A Wiley Imprint).
