[Daub]

> But still, wouldn’t the link between artistry and self destruction be more a function of depression and not psychopathy?

I agree. But to be fair to the article (and to the research which it addresses) the term 'psychopathological traits'. I'm gonna guess that we all have a few of those.

> But even that is just surface level I think. What is it that makes depressed people artists? Or vice versa.

An excellent question, and likely very hard to answer definitely. I can make a simple observation: that it is hard to imagine a work of art that does not strive for excess: excessive beauty, excessive grandeur, excessive horror etc. Hence, an artist is sort of like an astronaut of the emotions, 'boldly going' to outlying states. This job description is not amicable with peace of mind and restfulness.

This might be what attracts neurotic types to becoming artists... to exorcise whatever angels or demons keep them awake at night. Alternately, it might be a causal mechanism for turning perfectly stable artists into neurotic types.

[geoffmanning]

You lost me here. To reduce all art to excess is to reduce life to excess. Art is simply expression of the experience of life, and there is absolutely no correlation between art and excess. How is the Mona Lisa an expression of excess? How are countless pieces of art from the middle ages expressions of excess? Excess is somewhat of a modern concept enabled by first world problems. Excess wasn't a problem in the past nor was it something that artists commonly expressed.

[Daub]

I illustrate this point to my students, who are great fans of Korean drama. These are near-hysterical operas of great excess: love unrequited, betrayal, jealously etc.

Perhaps this phenomenon can better be expressed as 'exaggeration', which is a form of excess. The fact that artists exaggerate upon nature is an observable fact. My own work on color contrast proves this fairly conclusively.

The Mona Lisa is an exaggeration of foreground/background contrast, of the-pose-at-rest vs dynamic tension, of feminine beauty juxtaposed with the beauty of nature etc.