heehs, peter - genius, mysticism and madness - psychohistory review vol. 26 (1997)
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Genius, Mysticism and Madness by Peter HeehsFor many centuries the man or woman of exceptional intelligence or creativity — the “genius” as we now say — has been thought to be closer to the lunatic than to the ordinary mortal. Plato said that inspired poets wrote “as if possessed by a spirit not their own” in “a state of divine insanity.” Four hundred years later Seneca wrote the almost proverbial sentence: Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit,” paraphrased by Dryden in a famous English couplet:TRANSCRIPT
