Self-Help, Memoirs, Literary, Educational & Nonfiction, Biographies & History, Depression, Bipolar 

In this comics memoir, cartoonist Ellen Forney tells the story of her struggle with bipolar disorder and her uncertainty over what role her disorder plays in forming her personality and her identity as an artist. Forney conveys her emotional state during her manic and depressive episodes with expressive drawings and pages of a sketchbook that she kept while depressed. She also addresses the stereotype of the “crazy artist,” exemplified by Sylvia Plath and Vincent van Gogh, wondering throughout the book whether she is sabotaging her own creativity by accepting treatment and medication for her disorder. In the final section, Forney conducts a literature review on the perceived connection between mental illness and creativity; she finds that there does appear to be some association between mental illness and creativity, but no mechanism of causation has been found, and many artists with mental illnesses work better when they are stable.