An excerpt from a lecture given in Japanese by the psychologist Kawai Hayao. My translation:
Today, we are not going to discuss Freud, but he was also terribly neurotic. Thus, in efforts to conquer his neurosis, in self-analysis, he considered and rejected many ideas, until, as you all know, he invented psychoanalysis. Ellenberger, in a study of this case, called it a “creative illness.”
The interesting thing is, afterwards, upon considering other scholars and famous people engaged in creative work—for example, people who have made extraordinary artistic achievements—it became apparent that, in mid-life, many of them are afflicted by creative illness.
Now we know that such creative illness—it could be a mental illness, of course—can also be a physical illness, or even the result of an accident. For example, someone has an unforeseen accident, they are told that recovery is impossible, they are bed-ridden, unable to go anywhere, and then from the depths of their heart emerges something radically new. Although everything was fine, they were in good health, suddenly they are struck down. And being so stricken, feeling that all is hopeless, a new, creative potential emerges. In my view, this is of enormous importance.
For example, consider the case of Natsume Soseki—not a mental illness, but rather an illness of the body, as many of you are aware. This is a classic case. Soseki, while working as a professor at Tokyo University, wrote I am a Cat and Botchan, and quickly became famous. Just then, as everyone was delighted by reading his books, he developed a stomach ulcer and vomited terrible amounts of blood. And so, at that time, it seemed that he was certainly dying. There is a famous anecdote about his doctor, who sometimes spoke German, thinking the patient would not understand. At Soseki’s bedside, speaking German, the doctor said, “He is dying. Please call his children.” However, Soseki understood German, and so he thought, “Ah, there’s no hope for me.” Soseki later wrote about that time—his life was ending. And yet, surprisingly, he recovered from the stomach ulcer.
As you know, Natsume Soseki’s early works, such as I am a Cat, Pillow of Grass, Botchan, compared to the works he wrote after that illness, such as Kokoro, Grass on the Wayside, Light and Dark, the writing style is dramatically different. That is, from the experience of nearly dying from that illness, a great change occurred in his state of mind, and he wrote works based in that deep experience.