Squelching Genius?

My friend Judi's most recent blog post about creativity had me thinking. We adults in charge of rearing and training children certainly do stifle creativity in our attempts to teach children to conform though much of it is probably necessary to maintain a consistent society. But I also often consider the genius we may have squelched as we use harsh medications to treat people with mental illnesses. Handel wrote Messiah in twenty-four days and claimed that heaven opened while he was writing the Hallelujah Chorus. Nowadays someone would have intervened and sent his manic self to the psych ward! We know that VanGogh had some sort of mental illness whether it was mania, depression and/or heavy metal poisoning, and in his unrelenting madness gave us some of the finest art of the past few centuries. Over the years I have helped to take care of a few patients who seem to have more than the normal share of brilliance, whether in their ability to communicate or in one of the arts. While I believe there are generally not enough resources to treat the mentally ill, I also believe that the drugs that stabilize their moods and thoughts also inhibit and even eliminate their creative brains. Sometimes I wonder what the world could be missing artistically by not letting their brains roam a little freer. If Lincoln has not been as depressed as he was, I doubt he could have reached into his soul and created the sensitive document we know as the Gettysburg Address.