Only the Mad Can Change the World: Art and Madness

Albert Einstein said that "madmen who believe they can change the world actually do change it," but is that true? Madness is irrational; it reveals new thinking capable of opening, observing, feeling, and understanding this world differently. In this book,... the author confronts two worlds: art and psychology. Which lady pursued Erasmus of Rotterdam? Were Van Gogh and Edvard Munch really mad? How did fear and greatness in the face of death and the unknown inspire mad geniuses? Are madmen as mad as they seem, and how did the phenomenon of the "mad creator" spread throughout the art world? Through the most vivid examples from the biographies of Mozart, Ensor, Magritte, and many others, the author carefully, yet insistently, traces the thin historical thread of madness to our time and provides answers to these and many other questions.