divine madness
God-touched creative fury
Divine madness is a state of inspired frenzy attributed to supernatural possession—creativity, prophecy, or ecstasy that seems to come from beyond the rational mind.
The Greeks distinguished four types: poetic, prophetic, ritual, and erotic.
The concept suggests that certain forms of apparent insanity carry sacred gifts: The artist worked in a state of divine madness, barely eating or sleeping.
It persists in romantic notions linking genius to instability.
- tranceSemiconscious, unresponsive condition
- raptureOverwhelming ecstatic feeling
- ecstasyOverwhelming intense delight
- frenzyViolent mental agitation
- shamanismMediation between worlds
holy fool · altered states · out of body · prophetic vision · oracle · Bacchus · unconscious mind · genius · mythic hero · muse · transcendence · enlightenment · Dionysus · vision · nirvana · losing oneself · mysticism · imagination
- Greek OraclesDelphi, oracle of Delphi, oracles, prophecies, seer
- wine culturewine cellar, winery, vintage, grape, grapes
- madnesslunacy, insanity, mania, schizophrenia, psychosis
- EuripidesMedea, Hippolytus, Electra, Helen, Orestes
- Neoplatonismemanation, nous, henosis, the Good, world soul
- Platonic philosophyforms, soul, ideal forms, nous, logos
divine madnessmental illness
Disorder affecting cognition or mood
neurological disorder · psychosis · brain disease · psychiatric condition · schizophrenia