The paradox of suicide and creativity : authentications of human existence
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The paradox of suicide and creativity : authentications of human existence
Lexington Books, c2021
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-187) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
If creativity is the highest expression of the life impulse, why do creative individuals who have made lasting contributions to the arts and sciences so often end their lives? M.F. Alvarez addresses this central paradox by exploring the inner lives and works of eleven creative visionaries who succumbed to suicide. Through a series of case studies, Alvarez shows that creativity and suicide are both attempts to authenticate and resolve personal catastrophes that have called into question the most basic conditions of human existence.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: 'You Will Rescue Objects from Oblivion': The Case of Iris Chang
Chapter 2: 'Haunted by the Vivid Memories of Killings': The Case of Kevin Carter
Interlude I: Is Creativity Intrinsically Healing?
Chapter 3: 'Give Me One Good Reason to Stay': The Case of Phyllis Hyman
Chapter 4: 'A Dry Place to Call Their Home': The Case of Kurt Cobain
Chapter 5: Individuation through Poetry and Death: The Case of Sylvia Plath
Interlude II: Creativity and Temporality
Chapter 6: 'The Soul We Have Loved, the Soul that Has Left Us': The Case of Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan
Chapter 7: A Lifelong Project of Resurrection: The Case of Alan Turing
Interlude III: Suicide as Authentication of the Self
Chapter 8: Existence through Annihilation: The Case of Yukio Mishima
Chapter 9: 'Beauty Is a Dissident Force': The Case of Reinaldo Arenas
Chapter 10: The Drama of the Disintegrating Self: The Case of Robin Williams
Interlude IV: The Medicalization of Life and Death
Conclusion
References
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