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Written May 27, 2011
Updated May 27, 2025
If Van Gogh took psychiatric medication, would Starry Night still exist — or would the world be a little darker? Let’s separate romantic myths from real science and lived experience. Not infrequently, at Bipolar Burble, I get comments about how if famous artists with mental illnesses had been medicated, we wouldn’t have their art today. Psychiatric medication and creativity are simply perennial topics. Their go-to example is always Vincent Van Gogh. Without his untreated mental illness, they argue, Van Gogh wouldn’t have been the great artist we know him to be today. And if that’s true, then others shouldn’t take psychiatric medications either, as they want to be…