Creativity and Illness

How Suffering Affects Literature, Art, and Music

Philip Sandblom, Anders Palm (Professor emeritus, Comparative Literature)

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Hardback

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English

Lund University Press,Sweden
14 October 2025

Individual artists, art monographs; Literary studies: general; Cultural studies; Medical sociology; Creative therapy (eg art, music, drama)

Series: Lund University Press

A classic in the field of Medical Humanities, the late Philip Sandblom's study of art and ill health first appeared in English in 1982. This is a new, extended version, based on the definitive Swedish edition of 2022.

In riveting analyses of the interplay between illness and art, music, and literature, Creativity and illness shows how various diseases and disabilities have affected the works of famous artists, composers, and authors. Among the disorders examined by a renowned surgeon with a passion for art are drug addiction, dementia, visual impairment, and tuberculosis. Many famous names crowd the pages of this book, meeting us in fresh contexts which it took a medical expert to identify.

Despite its engagement with horrendous diseases, this book celebrates the strength of the human spirit in adversity and emphasises the joy of creation.

By: Philip Sandblom
Revised by: Anders Palm (Professor emeritus Comparative Literature)
Imprint: Lund University Press,Sweden
Country of Publication: Sweden
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 170mm, Spine: 17mm
Weight: 690g
ISBN: 9789198740523
ISBN 10: 9198740520
Series: Lund University Press
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 14 October 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Publisher’s note Preface Introduction The relationship between illness and creativity The salient characteristics of creative personalities Artificial stimulation of creativity Neuroses and psychosomatic disorders Mental illness Congenital malformations Old age, feebleness, and death Disturbances affecting sight and hearing Severe pain Digression: artists’ views on medicine and physicians Tuberculosis Various physical illnesses Summary Epilogue Sources of illustrations Index -- .

The late Philip Sandblom (1903-2001) was a Professor of Surgery and Vice-Chancellor of Lund University from 1957 to 1968.

Reviews for Creativity and Illness: How Suffering Affects Literature, Art, and Music

'Philip Sandblom has given the ultimate gift to medicine, to literature, and to the creative arts. He shows us how we are jointly engaged in the highest calling possible. Together — and only together — can we physicians, artists, writers, and patients delve to the deepest levels of comprehension of the human conditions of mortality and suffering with the vision bestowed upon us by the arts. In effect, Philip Sandblom has rehumanized the practice of medicine and reconfirmed the necessity of beauty in our lives.' Rita Charon, Bernard Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine & Professor of Medicine and Chair, Medical Humanities and Ethics, Columbia University -- .