Art as Therapy

So, I’m taking another sort of aside from what I’ve been writing about. It’ll be related, but not quite.

It’s said that all great art comes from tortured souls. All the pieces that are meant to last, that sink into our soul are always created by those who have some extremely deep and scary personal demons. This goes for all forms of art: from music to film, from painting to novels.

Why is that?

Perhaps it’s the concept of art as therapy.

It’s true that art can be very powerful in therapy. It’s used in a lot of mental institutions to help process… But what about when it’s elevated to high art?

It seems like all memorable art is created by someone who was abused, beaten, battered. They are the alcoholics and drug addicts.

For myself, I write. I write because it feels as though I have something I need to get out. If I weren’t abused (in all ways) when I was younger, would I still have this passion to write?

I might. I might not. I feel like I need to write because it helps exorcise my demons.

Maybe one of these days I’ll feel comfortable enough to exorcise the demon that I’m currently working on. And while it’s easier to write it as something completely foreign to me, I need to keep it mine and relevant.

Perhaps that’s why I create the characters I do.

I’ve never really given it much thought, but maybe I’m working on exorcising my own demons.