Judth Schlesinger, The Insanity Hoax: Exposing the Myth of the Mad Genius (Shrinktunes)
With wit and a nice sense of irony, Schlesinger lays siege to the popular notion that to be truly creative, a person must be mentally unbalanced. A PhD psychologist and a jazz critic, Schlesinger discusses myths about Charlie Parker, Chet Baker and other jazz musicians but also about Balzac, Beethoven, William Blake and Gustav Mahler, among other geniuses presumed to have been insane to some degree. She is not reluctant to take on members of her own profession for perpetuating the myth. She may persuade you that “…creativity should be celebrated, not diagnosed.â€