Appalachian Folk Art and Mental Illness: Is There Any Correlation?
Earlier in this blog, I have written about a different book by Elinor Lander Horwitz, called "Mountain People, Mountain Crafts", and I will also be writing in the future about at least one more of her books. In the process of reading the book which has prompted this blog post, "Contemporary American Folk Artists", I have come across more than one isntance in which she has written about some of the subjects of this book in terms of their having exhibited symptoms or simply quirks which could have been significant indicators of their having had some form or forms of mental illness. In saying this, let me also make it abundantly clear that, as a retired mental health and addictions therapist, I am not implying that all, or even a majority of Appalachian Folk Artists are mentally ill, or that a majority of any other form or artistic creators are mentally ill. But in the book which prompted this blog post, I have found more than one significant Appalachian Folk Artist who does exhibit such symptoms. I also want to make clear that no ethical mental health practitioner can legitimately diagnose a person they have never actually seen and assessed with any form of mental illness. But for the purposes of this blog post, let's assume the old saying "If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it must be a duck" is true. We also have seen several great artists in the overall world of great art who have exhibited such symptoms or quirks with Vincent Van Gogh being perhaps the most clear cut instance of such an artist. In the article "Art and Mental Disturbance" (Journal of Conscious Evolution, Volume 3, Issue 03, 2007, Page 11) we find this statement about the issue which I am discussing:
Ruth Richards in particular has conveyed in some of her research studies that significant creative potential may occur in people with milder forms of bipolar manic-depressive mental disturbance, i.e. a higher degree of creative potential than in a comparative group of “normal” people." (Runco & Richards, 1997). In the doctoral dissertation, "Art and Design Students' Social Norms Regarding Mental Illness, Creativity, and Help-Seeking Behaviors" (June 2015) by Dr. Danielle Licitra, we find the research result that
49% of the sample self-reported having a diagnosed mental illness, and an additional 15% indicated that they believe they have a mental illness but have not yet been diagnosed.
For purposes of this blog post, I am simply discussing a small number of the "contemporary American Folk Artists" who were interviewed by Elinor Lander Horwitz and written about in the individual chapters of her book which actually features a larger number of artists than simply those who exhibited those "symptoms and quirks" which I have mentioned earlier. She devotes a chapter to the Folk Artist Joseph Bell whom she describes as
"...a lonely man, deeply grieved by the death of his mother, with whom he lived all his life." (Horwitz, page 103. It appears from the writing about Bell that he used his creative sculpting as a means to dispel what was most likely a deep seated depressive disorder. Loranzo "Dow" Pugh seemed to exhibit similar depressive symptoms as discussed my Elinor Horwitz on page 108 of her book.
"My son got killed on a bicycle, my wife died, so I just live here alone, and I have to keep busy. I'm no artist...just got to keep busy..." In her chapter about the African American Folk Artist Arthur Flax she describes him as
"a flamboyantly eccentric man ...riding about on his bicycle for decades, no one seems to know very much about this solitary man who lives in the woods..." (Horwitz, page 113.) In a later descriptive passage about Arthur Flax she says that "...the artist is not sure of his age. He says that he was raised by his grandmother, and seems to have lived alone since he was a teenager. He neither reads or writes, and he occasionally calls himself by other names. He has difficulty sorting out his memories..." (Horwitz, page 116.) These passagess about Arther Flax definitely indicate a man who deliberately isolates himself from the world as much as posible, has no close acquaintances even in his own neighborhood, and appears to suffer from some social anxiety disorder or, perhaps some more serious mental impairment as demonstrated by his difficulty in "sorting out his memories".
In the world of major artists, Vincent Van Gogh is nearly always the first name mentioned when people begin to discuss any possible or putative link between artistic creativity and mental illness. Before killing himself with a gun at the age of 37, Van Gogh had previously cut off one of his ears and painted a very famous self portait with his bandaged ear, or the space which it had previously occupied, in full view. Edgar Degas was also known as a man who was very often socially isolated, curmudgenly, and irritable. He also suffered from bouts of depression and periods of complete ineffectiveness and great droughts of listlessness. Edvard Munch whose most famous painting is the scream had severe anxiety and often suffereed from hallucinations. There is little doubt that he was psychotic at times. The American painter Georgia O'Keefe whose paintings of flowers which often had apparent sexual conotations was seriously depressed and suffered a total nervous breakdown in 1933. All of these artists both major artists the world over and many Appalachian Folk Artists were clearly mentlly ill to one degree or another. Yet all of them created great works which are displayed in dozens, if not hundreds, of museums around the world. There is a strong argument that there is an apparent connection between artistic ability and mental illness. This naturally brings us to consider the question "would these people have been creators of great art works if they had been unquestionably sane all their lives". We don't know. We might well never know. And some of us also ask "if these people are undoubtedly insane but produce great works of art should we even bother to be concerned about their mental illness so long as it harms no one". Who knows? I would say we should just enjoy their art works, appreciate and support their greatness, and attempt to treat their mental illness only so long as they request that treatment.
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