Wednesday, February 16, 2011

What can you do?

I was snooping around the magazines at the supermarket again, and inside Frankie magazine I spotted one of those little filler articles in the back pages all about how creative mentally ill people are, and it gave the obligatory list of famous creative people who are supposed to be or have been as crazy as a box of frogs. Among the list I saw Syd Barrett, listed incorrectly with some other people as a schizophrenic. Syd Barrett was never, ever, ever diagnosed with schizophrenia. It just never happened, no matter how many times people say it is so. And he didn't have it. And there is good evidence, that can be found easily in books and articles, that he didn't have it. And nonsense like this misrepresents schizophrenia and mental illness. And it also misinforms on the subject of creativity. And it defames someone's memory. But don't let all that spoil your stupid little filler article for a girly magazine!

The Interesting Case of Syd Barrett
http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com/2009/11/interesting-case-of-syd-barrett-for.html

Frankie
http://www.frankie.com.au/

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