Tormented Artist myth is bullshit.
“Let’s not forget that small emotions are the great captains of our lives.” — Vincent Van Gogh (via nogreatillusion via buongiorno)
But do they really have to be? I mean, it seams like this is saying that we have no choice or freedom in our lives, that we are just controlled by our emotions. Vincent Van Gogh was surely a great painter, but lets face it, he failed at many other aspects of his life. I think that really great men have learned a measure of control over their emotions. I think that is what people called character and discipline and it was something that use to be cultivated.
I have to ask myself, why are these qualities no longer cultivated? Why would a consumerist society that uses emotionally manipulative advertising to manufacture demand for products cultivate the idea that we are at the mercy of our emotions?
I have been in therapy for years now, and I have started to gain a measure of control over my emotions, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t still feel them, intensely in fact. But I have gained some control over how and when I feel them, so that I can feel them in a productive not self-destructive way. This actually increases my creativity as I am able to direct the energy better into constructive creative acts.
That is why I no longer believe in the myth of the tormented artist.
