General
In the past, there were the annual Literature and Medicine symposia at Amsterdam UMC. The Literature and Medicine Foundation will continue this tradition and is organizing a symposium on the image of the suffering artist on the afternoon of Saturday, November 30, 2024.
Is it a prerequisite for an artist to suffer for their art? This question has been asked for centuries. Artists, for example, struggle with the pressure of creation or play with the image of the suffering genius. Psychiatrists and psychologists try to explain what creativity is and to what extent psychological vulnerability is a cause or effect of it. Meanwhile, this image is deeply embedded in popular thought. How valid is this image, really? Speakers from various disciplines will address this question.
The inspiration for this symposium comes from the dissertation of art historian Laura Prins, which she hopes to defend in the spring of 2025, and the empirical research of Jenny Boumans on this topic.In the past, there were the annual Literature and Medicine symposia at Amsterdam UMC. The Literature and Medicine Foundation will continue this tradition and is organizing a symposium on the image of the suffering artist on the afternoon of Saturday, November 30, 2024.