Customer Reviews

The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain

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Hypergraphia, about which I knew nothing prior to reading this book, is the medical term for an over-powering desire to write. Writing, Dr. Flaherty tell us, is the domain of the cerebral cortex, but the desire to write is the domain of the limbic system -- the hypothalamus and the structures of the temporal lobe. It is altered temporal lobe activity that is associated with creativity. On the other hand, frontal lobe processes are involved in writer's block. This area, as science, struck me as new and very much evolving. The most interesting section of the book, even more speculative than the location of writing proclivities, is her commentary on the inner voice and its role in writing. This is an area where strands fuse -- religion, creativity, psychosis. For Dr. Flaherty it was one morning "that bristled with significance. The way a crow flapped its wings as it rose heavily off the ground was a semaphore, signalling something just past my understanding." And not long after she heard, "the opposite of writer's block," her signal to write about hypergraphia. This internal/external presence of a voice became manifest to her following a depression brought on by the death of twin infants. Remarkably, if not miraculously, she later gave birth to another set of twins, thriving at the time of her writing. This is an unusual book. She interweaves her personal history and her clinical training. Coupled with a wide and diverse reading, Dr. Flaherty demonstrates in this book an intense mind; reading her is like riding with a mind in over-drive. I look forward to her next book, and she has all but assured us that one is in the making.

As a teacher of English composition, I am often given silly self-help books on writer's block, and I also generally shy away from dry scientific books about the brain and language. This book is neither. For one thing, its writing is surprisingly lyrical. And, although it doesn't offer any panaceas for writing problems, it teaches you how to look for solutions that will work for your particular problem. As a bonus, there are many fascinating anecdotes about literary figures.

I picked up this book after hearing the author on NPR, and I figured I'd skim through it. Instead, I was completely drawn in by the mix of science, historical anecdote, and moving personal story that Dr. Flaherty has assembled. We've all suffered from writer's block at one point or another but I'd never heard of hypergraphia, and the things she has to say about how the brain works and can cause creative disorders are totally fascinating. I plan to recommend this book to all my writer friends.

Dr. Alice Flaherty has given us a powerful and original work in THE MIDNIGHT DISEASE. Her scientific knowledge about the discreet functions of the different brain areas highly qualifies her to offer a thesis on the origins of human creativity. In addition, Dr. Flaherty's vast general knowledge, compelling narrative style, and personal experience with both postpartum depression and hypergraphia make THE MIDNIGHT DISEASE a fascinating read. This book provides brilliant insight into the questions that surround our impulse to create and communicate. And her chapter on the sensation that artists have of "being visited by the muse" is absolute genius. Keep your yellow highlighter pen at your side for this read-it's chockfull of amazing passages.

Everyone knows why we avoid the stuff we *don't* really want to do. But why do we avoid stuff we really *do* want to do? There are no easy answers to questions like this, but what an eye-opening experience it is to start to understand some of the tricks the brain plays on itself. This is an incredibly unique, honest book and God bless Dr. Flaherty - both for her ability to explain neurobiology to the uninitiated and, still more, for her willingness to bear her soul a bit. Buyer beware: This is not a self-help book. It's an intimate conversation with a remarkable person. It won't change your life; but it might alter some of the ways you look at life.

The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain
The Midnight Disease is many books in one: a heart-wrenching memoir of a woman's post-partum struggle to deal with the loss of twins in child birth; a comprehensible summary of selected neuroscience findings relating to mania, depression, creativity, language, and writing; a doctor's account of her patients' related disorders; an advice book on how to combat creativity blockages, including writer's block; and relevant anecdotes about how many successful writers have approached their task. Flaherty, a neurologist, says that she was motivated to write it by her "bewilderment about what wire in my brain snapped after the deaths of my first children," one of her symptoms being hypergraphia.

Her intended focus on writing expands into broader areas of brain activity and behavior (such as creativity generally, depression, and language and speech) in part because of the paucity of neuroscience research findings regarding writing per se (at least in 2004 when this book was published). She points out that "... writing is not hard-wired to the degree that speech is. There do not appear to be distinct brain regions processing written language but not spoken language, although the angular gyrus may help to integrate the visual and auditory aspects peculiar to written language." This should come as no surprise, since writing probably did not first evolve in any given culture until as recently as about 5000 years ago.

Flaherty reviews several theories of creativity, although again she notes the limitations of the existing neurological research. She concludes that people cannot be seriously mentally ill and still be creative, that if there is a link between creativity and mental illness it applies only to mild expressions of the illness. Now diagnosed as bipolar, she surely places herself in the mild category, since she stated in a 2009 interview that she writes during her manias and edits during her depressions. This pattern fits with the simple generating/editing model of creativity that Flaherty seems to accept.

For those who sometimes may feel frustrated by writer's block Flaherty offers at least one bit of possibly useful advice. She counsels that one should be less concerned about not writing when not inspired than about being ruthless whenever inspiration does hit; always have paper or a palmtop with you, she suggests (presumably she would allow situational exceptions, such as when her peers might come up with especially bright ideas just as they are redacting brain tumors).

Flaherty displays a palatable writing style, leavened by frequent brief light and funny interjections, patients' stories (although do not expect Oliver Sachs), and suitable literary references and quotations. She includes numerous interesting tidbits of information not exactly essential to her main points, but not unrelated either (just one example: she notes that languages with shallow orthographies -- straightforward correspondence between spelling an word sound -- make it easier for children to learn writing quickly). Despite the often distressing subject matter, overall Flaherty makes it feel less like midnight and more like dawn, a time of awakening.

As another reviewer asked, did I read the same book? While I appreciate everyone's glowing reviews of Flaherty's "The Midnight Disease" I have to say that their reading experience did not match mine. The parts of the book that were strongest to me were when Flaherty was attempting to grapple with her own condition and emotions, yet she never goes far enough into this, instead when it starts to get too personal she veers heavily back to the scientific jargon. But she seems take scientific writing to task in the chapter "Metaphor, the Inner Voice, and the Muse" so this becomes an interesting conundrum within her own book. While all the details on the brain and how it works and especially the case studies made for very informative reading, it also made the book difficult to slog through. I would have liked a summary, or major points at the end of the chapter to help me gel the ideas she is presenting. Though some of her literary references made sense, others seemed contrived to fit the particular thing she is discussing at that moment. Her discussions of medications were at times enlightening and at times frustrating. I still cannot summarize her position on anti-depressants, other than the tidbit she gives us as she compliments her own doctor for persisting in finding the right mix of medication and dosage to tune down, but not totally flatten her moods and emotions. To get right down to it, I can't summarize her conclusions about, as the subtitle puts it, "the drive to write, writer's block, and the creative brain." Is this a deficiency on my part, a lack of comprehension brought on by skimming the too detailed scientific discussions? I'm willing to admit the possibility, so while I found this a tough read I do recommend it to anyone who feels like doing the mental work required to read it.

This is neither a self-help book nor a neurological treatise; it's a rich and wonderfully stimulating memoir-cum-analysis of a cluster of issues to do with brain and mind and creativity. If you like Kay Redfield Jameson or Oliver Sacks, this is the book for you.

I found this book wonderful.

It's a very ambitious undertaking. The writer is triply qualified to speak on her topic -- the creative brain -- being a neurologist, a past sufferer of a mood disorder, and a writer. She brings all of this first-hand knowledge to bear on the topic, and the result is an unusual book.

I found a few parts of it difficult to understand, but skimming in a few places didn't detract from the experience for me. Published only last year, it provides an up-to-the-minute glimpse of neurology; we learn about significant strides being made in understanding brain states.

Alongside this ringside-seat science reporting, she relates her own experience with some of these brain states -- both in the form of her mood disorder and in the form of her creative writing. And she relates interesting stories about a wide variety of creative thinkers and thinkers on creavity.

I found the combination delightful. I think the author succeeds beautifully in weaving together these personal and scientific threads. But it is different from most books in its lack of a summary conclusion. I think that's one of its strengths: rather than trying to spin her own personal theory, Flaherty contents herself with furthering our understanding of how to frame the question. Quite an accomplishment. I say Bravo!

Last year I was diagnosed with bipolar 1 disorder after the birth of my second daughter. When I went into labor with her, it was midnight (yes!) and I was unable to sleep for the following six nights. My initial sleep deprivation triggered my latent bipolar illness. After my first 24 hours without sleep, I had postpartum mania and acute hypergraphia. While my newborn slept, I literally could not stop writing. I have a B.A. in English and American literature from U.C. Santa Cruz and I have been a professional writer for the past 12 years. However, I had never before experienced the feeling of words and ideas pouring out of me like Niagra Falls when I had hypergraphia. It was an amazing experience, to say the least. It was bittersweet, as obviously my mental condition was bound to spiral out of control. I wasn't properly parenting my newborn or my toddler, and my carpal tunnel in my right wrist acted up to the point where I could barely write. After studying depression and bipolar disorder for years, and being personally exposed to bipolar illness (my 82. yr. old father, a violinist with the L.A. Philharmonic, has bipolar 1.) I realized I had postpartum mania. I Googled the internet, and up came Dr. Alice Flaherty's book "The Midnight Disease". This excellent book could not have landed in my hands at a better time. In some sections, Dr. Flaherty was describing my life with hypergraphia, in such an eloquent, spot-on way. Moreover, her book was so incredibly fascinating, informative, and powerful that I could not put it down. I bought a copy of it for my psychiatrist, Dr. Abarbanel, author of "Lovesick", who also found the book outstanding. I gave a copy of it to my Dad, who agreed with me that it was of the highest caliber of writing. I will continue to spread the word about Dr. Flaherty's masterful work, and I am thankful that she not only examined the creative brain but shared her personal story as well. She is a brave and brilliant writer.