Phineas wrote:
I wonder if Frank Zappa had an undeclared or undiagnosed mental
illness. He had references to suicide in his songs and seemed very
moody.
[etc.]
The problem here is not only trying to diagnose posthumously, but also
that the subject was unquestionably brilliant and probably a bona fide
genius -- a *productive* genius at that, such that even if he had an identified mental illness it probably wouldn't have been in anyone's
interest to treat it, unless he degenerated into outright abuse or
something.
It reminds me of Nietzsche, who *did* eventually go mad. Most of his
best work was done in the four or five years preceding the breakdown,
where it's easy to imagine that his sanity was being nibbled around the edges. "Ecce Homo," finished just before, is both frightening and fascinating, with chapter titles like 'Why I Write Such Good Books,' and
'Why I Am A Destiny.'
Fortunately it doesn't affect the good work, except for people who can't
read such things without thinking of what happened later.
/John
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