Genius: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Robinson Andrew

Author:Robinson, Andrew [Robinson, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2011-02-23T16:00:00+00:00

Before the accidental discovery of lithium salts in 1948 for treating mania, and the discovery of other drugs such as reserpine and chlorpromazine in the 1950s for controlling schizophrenia, sufferers had little choice but to come to terms with their illness. Once reliable drugs were available, creative people had to decide upon the advantages and disadvantages of taking them.

Robert Lowell took lithium in the late 1960s, and found himself both relieved from breakdown and more poetically productive. But he told the neurologist Oliver Sacks: ‘my poetry has lost much of its force’ – and it is true that Lowell’s later poems, post-lithium, are not as highly regarded by critics as his earlier work. With others, too, there does appear to be a trade-off between quantity and quality, according to a 1979 study of artists with manic depression (bipolar disorder) who were given lithium carbonate by the psychiatrist Mogens Schou. Taking lithium can allow someone to work again, but at some cost to insights obtained during manic highs. As the poet Gwyneth Lewis (the first National Poet of Wales) remarks in an essay, ‘Dark Gifts’, written for the collection Poets on Prozac:

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