Divine Madness: Ten Stories of Creative Struggle [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "What is the fascination we have for disturbed geniuses?..." (more)
Key Phrases: Norma Jeane, Judy Garland, Brian Wilson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's commonplace to observe that the line between genius and mental illness is razor thin, and critics point to a long list of writers, artists and musicians—from William Blake to Sylvia Plath—as illustrations. Kottler, a professor of counseling at California State University, Fullerton, superficially probes the relationship between madness and creativity through 10 case studies of artists who are as famous for their mental instability as their work: Sylvia Plath, Judy Garland, Mark Rothko, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Charles Mingus, Vaslav Nijinsky, Marilyn Monroe, Lenny Bruce and Brian Wilson. An excellent storyteller, he uses these case studies to illustrate the loneliness, sensitivity and intensity that characterized the lives of these artists and the extent to which their personal traumas and psychological instability blossomed into creative genius. For example, he tells how Plath's contentious relationship with her mother and her tortured marriage to Ted Hughes drove her into depression and eventually suicide but also fueled her poetic genius. But the stories of these artists are already very well known, and Kottler offers no genuinely new insights. Moreover, he resorts to sophomoric and clichéd notions—"we are all a little crazy, some more than others," "creativity is thinking outside the box"—to explain the relationship between madness and creativity. (Jan.)
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Review

"...fascinating and intimate portraits." (Glasgow Evening Times, February 2006)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; illustrated edition edition (December 16, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787981494
• ISBN-13: 978-0787981495
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,775,780 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars One Star for the Choice of People, One Star for the Work, February 13, 2006

By	D. Junius "djunius2" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I agree with BogWoz that this is a sloppy treatment of the artists' lives that does little to add any new insights.

Being a follower of Charles Mingus and Lenny Bruce, I was interested in seeing what the author would say. Instead he mentions that Mingus's childhood friend Britt Woodman went on to play trombone with Miles Davis (he means Duke Ellington), and that the position in which the deceased Lenny Bruce was discovered was manipulated by the police (the police did wrap a bathrobe sash back around his arm and placed a box in the background that was labeled "syringe" -- although it was a bulb syringe and not hypodermic...the odd position of the body came from Bruce's friend discovering him and falling as he picked him up).

Albert Goldman's "Ladies and Gentleman -- Lenny Bruce!" is plagiarized (the mention of Lenny's mother nagging him to "Eat better. Exercise. Take care of himself..." is a direct lift from Goldman's work) and likely other biographies are borrowed from liberally.

Kottler also says things that are overblown such as "Judy Garland is perhaps the greatest performer ever...Garland's 1961 Carnegie performance is perhaps the greatest performance ever...Mingus is perhaps the greatest bass player ever." Everyone in the book is a master of their particular art, but anyone who would admire these artists would know that there are equally great artists who influenced or were influenced by these people. Is Kottler trying to validate his work by hammering at the idea that the people he's writing about are the most important ever? Why not Elvis? Why not Montgomery Clift (equally as messed up as Judy...and by the way, Judy and Monty were both in "Judgment at Nuremberg" but not in any scenes together, so Kottler citing Clift as an actor of caliber that Judy performed with is fudging the facts)? Why not Charlie Parker (way more messed up than Mingus, yet Parker is the model that Mingus is held to)? Why not Pollock, Roethke, Delmore Schwartz, James Dean, Richard Pryor?

Or are you planning "More Divine Madness: The Creative Struggle Continues"?

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!, April 29, 2007

By	Sam Buker (College Park, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Divine Madness: Ten Stories of Creative Struggle (Paperback)

I am a college student in an abnormal psychology class. Divine Madness was for extra credit. I did not want to put the book down, I loved it. The stories are all very intrigueing, and things I never knew about some of the "stars" in the book. I would reccommend it for those that like psychology.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressed!, October 8, 2008

By	Scott C. Shuman - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Divine Madness: Ten Stories of Creative Struggle (Paperback)

I wanted to rate this book very well because I believe it is a book of powerful value! The idea is good, to chronicle 10 separate stories covering a wide spectrum of what each of these people endured. The author does it well and is able to bring a human touch to their lives but also an intimacy of innocence. I learned a lot about these ten people as well as myself while reading. A lot of good and healthy points which are edifying for anyone, especially someone struggling with madness or creativity. This book deserves praise because I never got the impression the author was trying to bully any of his beliefs, or even his points of view. I believe the idea is an honest one, expressed tastefully and professionally. There are a lot of critics out there, but we must remember, it is much easier to criticize than it is to create. Jeffrey Kottler has created a good work here, and I hope others can benefit from his style, which is quite creative I might add!