David Lynch on Depression and Art

I compiled several clips from interviews of David Lynch talking about mental illness in artists and how it can effect creativity.

Sources:

"Are you a genius, or a really sick person?" from:

"I am so depressed" from:

"I had a reason to go to therapy" from:

All other video clips came from the same YouTube video, that I am unable to track back down at the moment. The clips in that come from various lectures and interviews.

Music:
Laura Palmer's Theme
(from the Twin Peaks Soundtrack)
by Angelo Badalamenti

Version without music:
(and a subtitle fix)

[KaipitainKai]

Redux Version

Multiple people asked for the music to be removed.
I also changed some other minor details.

[Karanagi]

A surprisingly optimistic idea. Not art through suffering, but art despite suffering.

[skandaram]

Finally someone who actually understands depression and its impact on creativity.

[mashburnofficial]

I think artists are often people who feel very deeply, and tend to have big ups and downs. For this reason, an artist could be on a high, and creating a lot of great work, and then be down in the pit of despair a couple months later. People make the mistake of pointing to artists who killed themselves or suffered from depression as proof that you must be miserable to make great art, but they don’t realize that those artists were not miserable when in their most vibrant periods of creativity; on the contrary, those periods were their happiest. You must be able to understand suffering, without making a permanent residence in it.

[Nclm]

“The more you suffer, the less you want to create”

[elbowjuice]

He’s not just yapping. He’s really insightful.

[uomxcvk]

This is the thing a lot of people need to understand about "tortured artists". Going through all the negative things in life is important because it widens your emotional understanding. But when you're going through it, the ugly truth is it's hard to really do anything. People often romanticize depression, and while any genuine experience, including depression can fuel art, it's really when we rise above and make peace with our suffering where we could truly create. A lot of art were bred from negative emotions, but most of them were made when the artist were reflecting upon it, not drowning in it, made in those moments where they can breathe in the surface for a while.

[Dvfacu]

"You can understand conflict, but you don't have to suffer in it". That is so profund.

[maneasd]

I think the most essential thing you want to have when creating art is clarity. Depression is a fog and a moment of real clarity in the midst of pain can be so sweet and spark something great. I love this video because I really think we gotta get over this romantization of the depressed artist. Nothing good will come out of an artist that has lost balance

[victoryzy]

i love how he didn't romanticise mental illness. It tends to be a glorified trope that you have to be tortured artist to create.

"he didn't need to be suffering to create those paintings"

[RD-ltht]

Lynch hits it square on the head like my former shrink never did: depression or anguish may be present in the psychopathology of most artists but it's not a driving force, it's often an obstructing barrier.

[josegarza]

I have major/clinical depression. Treatment resistant depression as it’s called. I took pills and therapy and I felt no difference. I don’t know if I actually applied most of the cbt techniques as I was lazy. I stopped alcohol as it was eternal bliss for me but it was harming my life(7 years sober today) I quit excessive caffeine (quit coffee), tobacco as well. I stretch everyday, I workout everyday thanks to some of the principles in David Goggins book. I’ve changed. I still feel tired after sleeping a good solid 8 hours even 10-11. That’s how I know my depression is still there but life’s way more manageable now.
I make music every day on my daw. Another lesson from Mark Manson in his book Subtle art etc.
Don’t wait for motivation to come. Simply do an action, and inspiration turns into motivation and the process repeats. So by simply getting on my computer and creating or learning something about music production or whatever it is you love to do you will get inspired even on shitty days.

[grungeisdead]

Makes me feel better about my lack of creation through my depression…

[ManyDoors]

So strange that I found this video today. I am a photographer, and I’ve been so depressed lately that it has been so hard to get out and explore, and be creative. Depression comes in waves, and I feel like I’ve been drowning lately.

[KRAFTWERKK]

David is unironically giving some really good advices. One more reason why i absolutely admire this man and his work.

[hasan-fi]

It's not depression that makes you creative, but artists and creative people are more vulnerable to depression.

[TechRedstone]

I have an interesting relationship with depression and art. I feel myself go in and out of depression, and it's during the swing down, I turn into a junkie, where the full of life stuff I make seems mundane. And so I dig deeper and deeper, trying to harvest whatever little feelings I have left; and when I exit my darkness I usually come to realize I made something beautiful that I didn't even realize was beautiful while creating it.

[nanny]

He is so right. When I think of “Sunset Boulevard” when William Holden, playing a down-on-his lick writer who needs survival money goes to his agent for help, only to get a response that great ideas are born from an empty stomach (I am paraphrasing), but it always gets my goat because poverty and illness stifle creativity, they do not foster it David is truly brilliant.

[lopiklop]

People rarely understand what real depression is. Even today with all the mainstream canned phrases about mental health. People really have no idea. And trust me, that makes it even harder.

[weirdguy]

I was bouncing between being depressed and being neurotic for the majority of my early years, childhood included. It was only until college that I had a spiritual journey of self realization and awareness, and that is exactly when I started doing art. Painting, writing, journaling. And all of it was about pain and suffering, but finally through unclouded eyes; without ego, without that automatic fast brake-less car that was my head driving me towards agony. My happiest moments came from writing about my deepest pains. I think suffering is definitely an artistic factor because of its intensity; because it forces us to consider the worth of life. But one can only create once they are somewhat outside of that headspace, once they can see everything relative to it. The shiniest emotions are only so bright when they are contrasted to the darkest moments. Once i understood the nature of my suffering I could present it in its full glory, and it made me happy.