The Price of Greatness: Resolving the Creativity and Madness Controversy

by Arnold M. Ludwig

Exploring the lives and achievements of over 1,000 extraordinary men and women, this book offers answers to the age-old questions about the relationship between mental illness and greatness, and also reveals factors that predict creative achievement. The book is filled with colorful stories about many of the most eminent artists, scientists, social activists, politicians, soldiers, and business people of our time.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Philosophy

310 pages, Hardcover

First published March 24, 1995

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title makes this sound like it should be mainly a warning about ambition but it actually focuses more on what characteristics get people remembered in the history books of western civilization. In fact, the way it's written I could almost imagine the crazy parents of the world trying to use it like a how-to thing, to increase the likelihood of their kids becoming famous. Not to say that there aren't any warnings about ambition in here, just that it doesn't exactly come across as the main theme. Also, despite acknowledging that by "great" he means eminent, he sounds overly laudatory at times. When talking about such disgusting people I think words that can be mistaken for compliments should be avoided as much as possible. And one thing I think he's missing from his analysis that should be pretty obvious is that there are certain things that the producers of history books want us to admire. I mean, art is kind of a joke. People are told what they should like and just pretend to agree for the most part. Success has very little to do with the most skillful, aesthetic or original works, or the most important messages. You could say the same for the most famous people of every field, from actors to writers. The characteristics mentioned that contribute to eminence aren't timeless or universal by any means. They're mostly artificial, arbitrary and specific to our culture. That doesn't mean I completely disagree with him or anything, although what he says about "the Ortega hypothesis" sounded almost Ayn Randishly nutty to me now that I think of it. He actually does have a lot to say and he's clearly put a lot of thought into his enormous stack of statistics. My biggest complaint really is just the false advertising. Retitle this something like The Conditions That Foster Eminence and I'd probably give this an extra star, in the unlikely event that I'd actually read something by that title anyway. Haha!

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of data and theory, but in the end it doesn't settle the controversy. Rather, it seems to strengthen the notion that greatness/creativity is influenced more by upbringing than "madness".

[Samuel Parish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent analysis of problems associated with great creative minds. Dr. Ludwig was one of my professors at Univ of Ky College of Medicine.

[Lori · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am amazed how dull a book about creativity and madness can be.