Nietzsche: Bipolar Disorder and Creativity

Abstract

This essay, the last in a series, focuses on the relationship between Nietzsche’s mental illness and his philosophical art. It is predicated upon my original diagnosis of his mental condition as bipolar affective disorder, which began in early adulthood and continued throughout his creative life. The kaleidoscopic mood shifts allowed him to see things from different perspectives and may have imbued his writings with passion rarely encountered in philosophical texts. At times hovering on the verge of psychosis, Nietzsche was able to gain access to unconscious images and the music of language, usually inhibited by the conscious mind. He reached many of his linguistic, psychological and philosophical insights by willing suspension of the rational. None of these, however, could have been communicated had he not tamed the subterranean psychic forces with his impressive discipline and hard work.

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Notes on contributors

Eva M. Cybulska

Eva Maria Cybulska is a retired consultant psychiatrist living in London. She obtained a medical degree (with distinction) in the early 1970s from Gdansk Medical School (Poland) and did all her psychiatric postgraduate training in London afterwards.

Most of her life, she has been fascinated by literature, music and philosophy, and later by psychiatry, with all its drama. After taking an early retirement some 15 years ago, she has been able to devote her life more fully to these passions and has published extensively on related topics. Please visit her blog:emcybulska.blogspot.com/