Mad Muse: A Cultural History of the Tortured Genius
From Plato’s ecstatic seizure to Kusama’s self-curated hallucinations, the link between madness and brilliance has never belonged to biology or metaphor alone. It belongs to society’s need to pathologize prophecy, sanctify breakdown, or canonize pain.
Was Leonardo da Vinci Neurodivergent?
Historians call it genius; neuroscientists suspect a mind wired for hover and leap, restlessness and rapture. But was Leonardo’s electric creativity a Renaissance variant of what we call ADHD? Or did it spring from a wider constellation of neurodivergence?
Neurodivergence and Creativity Are Inseparable
Creativity is often romanticized as a lightning bolt—sudden, singular, inexplicable. But when you trace the circuitry behind that flash, you discover patterns: spirals of hyperfocus, constellations of sensory cross‑talk, highways...
