• Did Frank Zappa suffer from a mental illness?

    From afro67@gmail.com@21:1/5 to John Hopkins on Mon Sep 28 12:28:30 2015
    I have been a guitar player and Zappa fan for 30 years. I have recently have been diagnosed with late onset (49 years old) bipolar II disorder. It runs in my family. I have always been interested and sought out information on "the genius behind the man"
    so i would say Yes, absolutely Frank had bipolar and yes it was never talked about but Franks "bipolar habits" are well documented. Even his hypersexual habits. Confirmed by Gail and his need to keep groupies around.

    On Wednesday, December 12, 2001 at 7:21:49 AM UTC-5, John Hopkins wrote:
    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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