early failures repeatedly experienced by a person predisposed to depression inoculate against future illusion.

Their illness is the susceptibility to mania or depression, not the fact of actually (or always) being manic or depressed.

When not manic or depressed, those with bipolar disorder are normal, just like everyone else, but they retain an awareness that makes their perception just different enough to be unusually creative.

In one study, severely depressed patients had much higher scores on empathy scales than a college student control group; the more depressed patients were, the higher their empathy scores.

em means “into,” pathos is “suffering”—“into suffering.”

BESIDES BEING BORN with plenty of oxytocin receptors, how can one attain a high degree of empathy? One answer, I believe, is to be depressed.

resilience—“good outcomes in spite of serious threats to adaptation or development.”

Mental illness can produce great leaders, but if the illness is too severe, or treated with the wrong drugs, it produces failure or, sometimes, evil.

Twice, before he was 13, he tried to commit suicide.