The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person's Path Through Depression [Paperback]

Eric Maisel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2007

Creative people will experience depression—that’s a given. It’s a given because they are regularly confronted by doubts about the meaningfulness of their efforts. Theirs is a kind of depression that does not respond to pharmaceutical treatment. What’s required is healing in the realm of meaning.

In this groundbreaking book, Eric Maisel teaches creative people how to handle these recurrent crises of meaning and how to successfully manage the anxieties of the creative process. Using examples both from the lives of famous creators such as van Gogh and from his own creativity coaching practice, Maisel explains that despite their inevitable difficulties, creative people possess the ability to forge relationships, repair themselves, and find meaning in their work and their lives. Maisel presents a step-by-step plan to help creative people handle their special brand of depression and rediscover the reasons they are driven to create in the first place.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"The Van Gogh Blues is a mind-blowingly wonderful book.”
— Midwest Book Review

"Maisel persuasively argues that creative individuals measure their happiness and success by how much meaning they create in their work.”
— Library Journal

“Rather than shunning conventional treatments such as antidepressants and therapy, Maisel espouses confrontation with what seems like the existential pit of despair, the place creators often find themselves when looking for meaning in their work and the world. The Van Gogh Blues will help you remain true to your artistic calling and give you a medicine chest of tips and advice you can leverage if the Black Dog or another pernicious emotional booby trap snarls behind your canvas.”
— Jeffrey M. Freedman, screenwriter, Vivaldi, and journalist-author

From the Back Cover

Finalist, Books for a Better Life Award

"The Van Gogh Blues is a mind-blowingly wonderful book."
--Midwest Book Review

"Maisel persuasively argues that creative individuals measure their happiness and success by how much meaning they create in their work."
--Library Journal

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: New World Library (December 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1577316045
• ISBN-13: 978-1577316046
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #89 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Aging > Depression

More About the Author

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You are not alone, February 3, 2008

By 

Larry Feign "writer, cartoonist and disappoin... (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person's Path Through Depression (Paperback)

It sounds almost demeaning to Dr. Maisel to remark that the most valuable aspect of this deeply thought-out book is to demonstrate to any artist who reads it that "You are not alone". I believe any creative person who reads The Van Gogh Blues will jump up and down and shout out: "This guy must have been reading my diary!" several times per page. It's cathartic just to recognize that the depressions that all creative people go through don't mean they're crazy, it means they're normal. This doesn't rationalize or romanticize the artist's moods. Instead, it makes one want to finally do something to tackle it.

But the book goes way beyond simply identifying a syndrome. His concept of "meaning crises" makes immediate sense, and the way he goes through all aspects of this in detail, with both passion and compassion, gives the reader tools and motivation to immediately start to make sense of it all.

This is no fluffy self-help manual. It is dense with information and practical advice geared specifically for creative people, and is immensely engrossing reading, beautifully written.

I strongly recommend this book to any creative person. And, just as important, to any creative person's spouse or partner!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple, profound and totally on the ball, January 12, 2008

By 

Pamela Yates (Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person's Path Through Depression (Paperback)

The Van Gogh Blues by Eric Maisel is profoundly insightful and written in a style that offers respectful gentle support along with practical, hands-on instructions for handling the blues along with a good mix of supporting data for those who want to learn more. It's a gentle, wise resource that should be at the top of the list of resources to share with anyone who gets depressed, at any level, whether they call themselves creative or not. Any thinking person can get depressed and the help in this book can be used by everyone.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New material, fresh approach for the creative person, April 24, 2008

By 

Tanner Griffins (Québec) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person's Path Through Depression (Paperback)

With so many books being published about creativity, it may be repetitive to read about the same old reflections and the same suggestions to nurture your abilities. Eric Maisel has found a refreshing way to address creative people's issues. With the Van Gogh Blues, he presents his approach to deal with the anxiety and depression creative persons tend to feel at different points in their lives.

While he doesn't shun the medical take on depression, he brings an existential understanding of the situation. This view expresses that a creator that repeatedly makes meaning, hold on to that meaning in his life (life's work meaning and meaningful day-to-day life)will have a better chance of dealing with an inclination to depression.

Eric Maisel covers the field as to how meaning can be created using other's artists biographies, emails from contemporary creators and his experience as a creativity coach (which might be the coolest job in the world, I think). The book's question could be: As creatives, how can we create meaning in life? This way, the books appeals to more than only the depressed artists. To top it off, the author writes in a clear but not-dumbed-down way, ideal to the sophisticated, intellectual reader who appreciates good writing.

Even for a person who constantly reads on creativity and life purpose, I found this book brings new ideas and a fresh take on what assails the creative person.