NEW INTERVIEW RECEIVED: From Jess S.

1. Hello there. What is your name, your game, and favourite Canberra haunt?

Jess Swan. My game is…being a student? But I like writing (short fiction). I don’t have a haunt for writing, do that at home, but I do like the Gallery for good times and inspiration.

2. Do you think there are connections between mental illness and creativity? Why?

Possibly. But I don’t think it’s an ‘always’ type thing. I don’t think all mentally ill people are creative and I don’t think all creative people need to have a mental illness in order to create. However, I think both cases are true for some people.

3. Do you practise any creative expression yourself?

Yes, I write short stories and have recently collaborated on a graphic novel.

4. Any experiences with yourself or friends, regarding mental illness, which you can say had links or effects to the products of creativity?

Not that I can think of.

5. Do you think there should be more research into the topic? Why?

I think so, yes. There are many well known creative people who have suffered from mental illness, so it would be interesting to see if there’s a link between the two.

6. Who comes to mind when you think of the topic? Thoughts on their experience/life?

Mostly female writers; Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Virginia Woolf. I admire all these women enormously and I think it’s such a tragedy that they all chose to end their own lives.

7. Do you have any theories as to why extreme episodes of mania and depression have influenced many artists’ works?

I think there’s a lot of passion (not necessarily the good kind) associated with depression/mania, and to me it would seem natural for this feeling to spill over into the creative processes of a person. I think that’s the nature of some mental illnesses, to consume a person, so in a way the influence on their work is inescapable.

8. Do you think there is still a lot of stigma related to mental illness? Why?

Yeah, for sure. In different ways than previously though, perhaps. I think that the “emo” culture has in a way trivialised mental illness, so its ‘cool’ kind of. That’s still stigma, because the people that are actually suffering might not be taken seriously. I think there’s also a tendency to ignore or not want to acknowledge or deal with mental illness, and certainly the government perpetuates this trend.

9. Do you think that creatives may sometimes avoid that stigma due to the praise of their talents?

Yes, sometimes, although it’s hard to say whether that’s a good thing. Some people argue for instance that Sylvia Plath would not be nearly as famous if she had not lived a controversial life/death. Are her works still genius, or do people only like them for the drama?