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Strong Imagination: Madness, Creativity and Human Nature (Hardcover)

by Daniel Nettle (Author) "This book is about mental disorders ..." (more)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

Hardcover: 248 pages
Publisher: OUP Oxford (1 Mar 2001)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0198507062
ISBN-13: 978-0198507062
Product Dimensions: 22.3 x 14.7 x 1.9 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 847,493 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Madness is the central mystery of the human psyche. Our minds evolved to give us a faithful understanding of reality, to allow us to integrate into our communities, and to help us adapt our behaviour to our environment. Yet in serious mental illness, the mind does exactly the opposite of these things. The sufferer builds castles of imaginative delusion, fails to adapt, and becomes a stranger among his own people. Yet mental illness is no marginal phenomenon: it is found in all societies and all historical epochs, and the genes that underlie it are quite common. Furthermore, the traits that identify the madman are found in attenuated form in normal thinking and feeling. The persistence of madness, then, is a terrible puzzle from both an evolutionary and a human point of view. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare suggested a link between madness and artistic creativity: 'The lunatic, the lover, and the poet', he wrote, 'Are of imagination all compact'. Recent studies have shown that there is indeed a connection. Rates of mental illness are hugely elevated in the families of poets, writers and artists, suggesting that the same genes, the same temperaments, and the same imaginative capacities are at work in insanity and in creative ability. Thus the reason madness continues to exist is that the traits behind it have psychological benefits as well as psychological costs. In Strong Imagination, Daniel Nettle explores the nature of mental illness, the biological mechanisms that underlie it, and its link to creative genius. He goes on to consider the place of both madness and creative imagination in the evolution of our species.

About the Author

Daniel Nettle studied psychology at the University of Oxford and then moved to University College London to carry out his PhD research in anthropology. He has written widely across several areas in the human sciences and has lectured in London, Oxford, Cambridge, and Nigeria. He lives in Oxford. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Outstandingly readable study of madness and creativity., 17 May 2001

By A Customer

I'm not a scientist or psychologist/psychiatrist but happened on this book while browsing & began reading. Its main benefit is that unlike most scientific books it's very clear and easy to read. I can't comment on the scientific validity but it seems to me to be a very good summary of current thinking on the biology of psychosis and its relationship with creativity.

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars madness abbreviated, 5 Feb 2009

By	M. T. Knight "mat in the dark" (Cornwall) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Strong Imagination: Madness, Creativity, and Human Nature (Paperback)

This is a very informative and descriptive book that draws on a lot of influences, to offer many links between creativity and mental illness tendencies. The terms and variety of subject matter make for a very intense read, which may not be accessible to people who do not enjoy scientific terms. The author enjoys the terms correlation and continuum.

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