Customer Reviews

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

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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!

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.

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.

I am not fond of "self-help" books, which always become so quickly redundant, even when they make sense. This book, however, really hit home at a number of points regarding finding meaning in existence, supporting creativity, and understanding addiction from a different perspective (at least for me). I even went online and looked up creativity coaches in my area! For more of my rants, raves, and recommendations, please check out my book blog at allthepage.today.com

After reading and studying Deep Writing, Fearless Creating and Living the Writer's Life, I grabbed, The Van Gogh Blues. I was having a bout of winter depression. Who needs Prozak when you can create profound meaning in life?
I'd been concerned about global warming/global cooling and couldn't sit back doing nothing. I recalled living with the Inupik-Inuit in Arctic, Alaska and later staying in the Hopi Village in Arizona. If indigenous people live and thrive in harsh environments, I mused, could modern day corporate Caucasians learn global harmony?
I decided to create meaning in my life and world by creating an anthology: Rainmaker's Prayers, Align with Global Harmony. Three hundred writers responded to a call for manuscripts from an ad I placed in Poets and Writers magazine
Dr Maisel's book The Van Gogh Blues changed my life. I continue to create meaning in my life, I believe we can all recreate our lives and our world. All human beings are creative, not just writers and artists. And, in the process of life we all get the blues...the choice is, like Van Gogh, to cut off your ear or as Dr Maisel suggests create something new or different. I strongly recommend this inspiring book.

The problem with so many self help books is an author will write a book and then rewrite the some book ten time under different title so it seem you have read it all before. Not so with Dr Eric Maisel, when I started reading The Van Gogh Blues, new ideas just jumped out of every page.

For most of my working life I have worked in the Television industry as a documentary cinematographer and director and am now in my seventies I am facing retirement but retiring does not stop the creative desire to practice ones art and of late I have had growing feeling of loss a kind of sadness that my work seemed to be over. However, reading the Van Gogh Blue, I suddenly felt a new energy and a possibility of bringing meaning back into my life.

Every person who has worked in a creative fields and is approaching their senior years should read this book.

Finally, I found a book that might actually help me and some of my dearest loved ones. I adore this book; and would love to meet the author. This book is for every "artist" who struggles w/ the "blues" or depression, yet knows that traditional medicine and therapy won't help much. I'm going to revisit this review when I'm done w/the book (I'm only about 1/4 into it); but until then, I'll just say, I finally feel I'm on the right track. Even in just the first chapter, I knew, this book was for me. Even my husband picked it up and said, "Wow. This is so you!" (in a good way). I can't wait to share it w/ others that I know are troubled/plagued w/ similar issues. Hope this helps you in your search...

Eric visited Rainmaker's Prayers blog during his virtual tour for his newly released book "The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person's Path Through Depression." Shinan asked some difficult questions and Eric gave some brilliant answers that we feel are important enough to share with the world. So I've included them in this customer review.



Shinan Barclay : In the face of global warming/global cooling, Eric Maisel's book: "The Van Gogh Blues ," inspired me to compile an anthology entitled "Rainmaker's Prayers,Align with Global Harmony." How do I encourage clients and contributors to find and create meaning in their life?

Eric Maisel: By helping them make the paradigm shift from finding meaning to making meaning. There is no meaning to find; it is not lost. There is only meaning to make; meaning is a choice. Once people really understand
this distinction, they realize that they know enough already to make these choices and they can begin to stand behind their own meaning
decisions.

Shinan Barclay: With climate change and the extinction of thousands of species, many people feel hopeless and helpless. How do you encourage people to find meaning among the uncertainty and confusion of evironmental upheavals?

Eric Maisel: By reminding them that they have a life to lead and they can lead it authentically or inauthentically. They are not in charge of the
universe--no one is. They are in charge of only and precisely their own
life. They can make their life a thing of moral beauty by their choices or they can watch more television. Until the world actually ends, we have
the obligation to take charge of our life and aim it in the direction
of our choosing; that is what "making ethics" means.

Shinan Barclay: Some data says that major corporations control the media, i.e. television, newspapers and magazine, and that the American population is spoon-fed and numbed by "corporate propaganda." How can we create meaning in an inauthentic world?

Eric: Only with great difficulty--but life is difficulty. There never was
a guarantee that life would be easy. You think through what would
amount to right action in this kind of environment--where you can make the
most difference or any difference--and then you step in that
direction, recognizing that you can't alter the world's configuration, All you can do is make yourself proud by your own efforts. You heroically
try; that's it, period.

Rainmaker's Prayers, Align with Global Harmony

I am an artist, I love Van Gogh, and I occasionally suffer from depression. What a perfect title for me, I thought. Some words of wisdom perhaps, that might help me get over the rough spots and maintain my productivity. The author's basic premise in this book discusses the difficulty artists have 'making meaning' in their lives. I have not found this to be particularly true in my case, but I tried to get through this book to see what he meant. The problem I had was both the rambling presentation and the huge overuse of the word 'meaning'. Seriously, like an average of 7 times per paragraph! No, I didn't count out the whole book, but I did try to read it, and it was very trying indeed. It think some serious editing needed to be done, which would render this book down to about 25 pages of thesis outline. I really hate to write less than glowing reviews, but for other artists out there who already feel that their lives are meaningful, you would be better off reading Epictetus (who is quoted in the book, happily). I think that if there a greater variety of words used to describe what Dr. Maisel meant, his ideas would have been clearer, and I would have gotten more out of it.

I checked this book from the Boston Public Libary once and loved it, but couldn't find it anyway. So along with my new Xmas present of a Kindle, I received am Amazon card and guess what--Amazon had my book. I ordered it and received it in less than a week. It hit the spot for me! I give it a 10 for content and quality of delivery.