This week I'm bringing a question that reared it's head again. It's the idea that suffering is the source of our best art. And the fear that goes with it - the reluctance to heal, to process and to move on - in case our edge goes with it.
Because if it's true that the best work comes from the most painful places, what happens if you stop hurting?
What if healing makes you lose the thing that made the work matter?
It's a conversation about the tortured artist myth.
Why it's persisted for centuries, what neuroscience actually tells us about trauma and creativity and whether it's possible to park the painful material somewhere you can still reach it, without having to live there to access it.
Lyndon does his best to be supportive and understanding, but unfortunately gives-in to his usual intrusive thoughts!
And we both ponder whether artists can actually afford therapy.
You might want to listen if:
• You wonder whether healing and creative legitimacy can coexist, or whether you have to choose
• You've caught yourself thinking that an artist with an easy life might have nothing real to say