Talk:Edvard Munch/Archives/2024/February

Latest comment: 9 months ago by MiloQuest in topic Munch's mental illness


Munch's mental illness

Excellent page and really beautifully written and edited. I have just inserted something into the section about mental illness. I think (having read the Sue Prideaux biography) it might be worth mentioning that contemporary critics used then-fashionable theories of hereditary insanity to seek to devalue Munch's art, suggesting that because his family member Laura Catherine suffered from mental illness then his art must be the product of insanity. I've cited one who levelled this charge. I'm not well-versed in the debate around whether he had BPD or not so have left that intact with a small qualification to the opening phrasing from 'it is believed' to 'some have argued' -- as Prideaux suggests that Munch was not mentally ill but rather tormented by grief and physical fragility and also worried by then-conventional theories about hereditary insanity. Hope that looks OK -and might edit a bit more if that's on the right track

Milo Quest

MiloQuest (talk) 15:31, 25 February 2024 (UTC)