Reading List

Let me recite what history teaches. History teaches.

– A Completed Portrait of Picasso (1924)

I read several chapters from Edrita Fried’s book Artistic Productivity and Mental Health, and I must say it was illuminating. Since the fall of 2007, I’ve been fascinated and exploring the link between creativity, madness, genius et al. I don’t know what I’m going to do with all this knowledge, but it is cheaper than therapy. At any rate,

In 1964 Edrita Fried and a number of collaborators published [the book]. The study was based on the therapeutic results with six artists; a sculptor, three painters, one actor-singer  and a writer. […] In an introduction the well-known sculptor Chaim Gross expressed some interesting opnions. He felt that the artist has to be happy in his personal life and have peace of mind so that he can create. “I feel that if you havea good…