Sounds From the Bell Jar: Ten Psychotic Authors

This groundbreaking work is a unique collaboration between an Oxford University psychologist and two literary critics. It explores the lives and works of 10 authors - among them Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath - who embody both serious mental illness and great originality of thought. The book draws upon personal diaries, historical archives, clinical records and literary productions, and examines modes of thinking - such as divergent thought, over-inclusiveness and autism - that psychosis and creativity might have in common. Using genetics, experimental abnormal and clinical psychology, personality research, descriptive psychiatry and literary analysis, Claridge, Pryor and Watkins present the revolutionary idea that normality and psychosis are continuous with each other. Healthy varieties and styles of thought and perception substantially overlap with the inclination toward psychotic breakdown and, indeed, might at times be identical. Psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, therapists and general readers will gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between madness and creativity from this book.

Author: Gordon Claridge, Ruth Pryor, Gwen Watkins
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Malor Books
Published: 06/22/2017
Pages: 274
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.41h x 5.53w x 0.69d
ISBN: 9781883536152
2nd Edition