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"The Catastrophe--Spalding Gray's brain injury" by Oliver Sacks

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Dr. Richard Grossman:
Hi everybody,

There’s a terrific/heart-breaking article in this week’s (4/27/2015) The New Yorker written by Oliver Sacks on Spalding Gray entitled:  “The Catrastrophe—Spalding Gray’s brain injury.”  The article looks at Gray’s brain injury from a car accident and how it affected his emotional health.  But also (especially for those like me with a family history of suicide), the article brings attention to the issue of the connection between genetics, psychopathology, and creativity (Robin Williams also comes to mind...).

Well worth a read, IMO.  (I believe The New Yorker has changed its policy such that non-subscribers can read individual articles…)

All comments are welcome!

Richard  

lighter:
That was so sad, it takes the breath away.

It sounds alarm bells, Doc.

Lighter

Dr. Richard Grossman:
Thanks for the read/response, Lighter.


For the most part, I don’t watch television (that’s a whole ‘nother topic!), but I happened to see Robin Williams doing standup comedy a year or so ago.  He was completely different from his old self—the emotional pain, which he used to cover up with all the zany, larger-than-life routines, was so apparent.  It was as if he had been stripped of all of his defenses, somehow revealing a completely alone, miniscule person.  On stage was the least likely place for such a person to be.   I told my wife that I was concerned that he was going to commit suicide, and it was not long after that he did.  So much of successful comedy (and creativity in general) comes from artists having unadulterated access to pain, the human condition stripped down to its bare essentials.  And those who have access are always at risk—particularly if the genes from a parent who committed suicide have been passed along.  I often think of the poet John Berryman in this regard.

And now, after Sack’s revealing article, Spalding Gray as well…

Richard

Hopalong:
My gosh, Doc G. I can relate to this.

I saw Anne Sexton read very shortly before her suicide, and after that
reading I had a deep kind of "massive anxiety attack" in which I had
visions of suicide but felt no intent toward it at all. I told the old poet who
 ran the grad program about it the next day, because I was worried I was going mad.

She killed herself a few days later and he called me in to say, "Dear girl,
you are not crazy. You had a premonitory experience, that is all."

I think her intent conveyed to me so powerfully through her expression,
body language, or something ephemeral. I sat closely in front of her and
felt extremely open to her, as I were unfiltered emotionally, in a way. Afterward
when I met her I remember pressing a poem into her hand and saying kind
of urgently, "Take care of yourself, please take care." Which felt odd.

So I trust and believe that you felt the signals coming from Williams as his
intent was building within him.

What a horrible loss. (He was my favorite comedian, I could relate to both
his manic side and his pain, I think.)

Hops

Dr. Richard Grossman:
Hi Hops,

Yes, caretakers of the world like you and I often have this curse!   We see through the last layers of protection and then feel surprised that no one else worries about others as we do.  But the best artists must have a limited amount of protection around them, or else they would not directly perceive the suffering that goes into both humor and drama.  Forest Hills Cemetery, where Anne Sexton is buried, is one of my favorite places to take Beau, my Golden Retriever.  We stop by the graves of Anne, and E.E. Cummings, and Eugene O’Neill—and then Beau goes for a swim in the pond as both of us, in our own way, enjoy the peace, quiet, and beauty of the solemn surroundings.

Richard

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