Creativity and illness

How suffering affects literature, art, and music

By: Philip Sandblom, Anders Palm (Revised by)

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Hardcover | 14 October 2025

At a Glance

Hardcover
244 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
24.41 x 16.99 x 2.06

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$75.89

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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.

Industry Reviews

'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

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