Creativity
Today I was watching Elizabeth Gilbert's talk on TED, "Your Elusive Creative Genius", which made the point that this vision we have of the tortured artist is kind of self perpetuating, and if we look back historically to the times when your inspiration, your art came from outside sources, muses, or genius, that it takes the pressure off of us personally. You show up and do your part but that spark comes from an outside source. Once we take the responsibility upon ourselves of BEING the genius, of carrying the whole weight of creativity, then it becomes too much, and it is too easy to fall into artistic despair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA