People with bipolar disorder have with out a doubt, helped shape the history of the world, in all venues, from the political to the arts to the spiritual and religious. Moses himself may have been manic depressive (he was impulsive, killing an Egyptian who was abusing a Hebrew slave, was a stutterer which reflects a problem in dopamine circuitry, and then had some very important spiritual experiences). Certainly Theodore Herzl, the late 1800’s mover of Zionism, was manic-depressive. So was Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven. The list is long and reproduced below, mostly from the Internet. I believe the main point of this topic is that a person can have a bipolar disorder and be quite productive and have a normal life. However, untreated, the disorder is strongly associated with divorce, alcohol and drug abuse, violent abuse, and early death from either suicide or cardiovascular causes.
Actors & Actresses
Ned Beatty, Maurice Bernard, Jeremy Brett, Jim Carey, Rosemary Clooney, Robert Downey Jr., Patty Duke, Carrie Fisher, Connie Francis, singer and actress Shecky Greene, Margot Kidder, Vivien Leigh, Kevin McDonald, comedian Kristy McNichols, Burgess Meredith, David Strickland, Lili Taylor, Tracy Ullman, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Robin Williams, Jonathon Winters
Artists with Bipolar Disorder
Alvin Alley, Ludwig Von Beethoven, Francis Ford Coppola, George Fredrick Handel, Bill Lichtenstein, Joshua Logan, Vincent Van Gogh, Gustav Mahier, Francesco Scavullo, Robert Schumann, Don Simpson, Norman Wexler
Entrepreneurs with Bipolar Disorder
Ted Turner, media giant
Financiers with Bipolar Disorder
John Mulheren, Murray Pezim
Miscellaneous with Bipolar Disorder
Buzz Aldrin (astronaut), Clifford Beers (humanitarian), Garnet Coleman (legislator Texas), Larry Flynt, publisher, Kit Gingrich (Newt’s mom), Phil Graham (owner of Washington Post), Peter Gregg, Susan Panico (Susan Dime-Meenan), business executive Sol Wachtier, former New York State Chief Judge
Musicians with Bipolar Disorder
Ludwig van Beethoven (composer), Alohe Jean Burke (musician), vocalist Rosemary Clooney, Peter Gabriel, Jimi Hendrix, Kristen Hersh, Phyllis Hyman, Jack Irons, Daniel Johnston, Otto Klemperer, Oscar Levant, Phil Ochs, John Ogden, Phil Spector, Sting, Gordon Sumner, Tom Waits, Brian Wilson, Townes Van Zandt.
Poets with Bipolar Disorder
John Berryman, C.E. Chaffin, Jane Kenyon, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Robert Schumann, Delmore Schwartz
Political with Bipolar Disorder
Winston Churchill, Robert Boorstin, special assistant to President Clinton, L. Brent Bozell, political scientist, attorney, writer Bob Bullock, ex secretary of state, state comptroller and lieutenant governer, Kitty Dukasis, Thomas Eagleton, Lynne Rivers, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States
Scholars with Bipolar Disorder
John Strugnell, biblical scholar
Scientists with Bipolar Disorder
Karl Paul Link, chemist Dimitri Mihalas
Sports with Bipolar Disorder
Shelley Beattie, John Daly, Muffin Spencer-Devlin, Ilie Nastase, Jimmy Piersail, Barret Robbins, Wyatt Sexton, Alonzo Spellman, Darryl Strawberry, Dimitrius Underwood, Luther Wright, Bert Yancey.
TV & Radio with Bipolar Disorder
Dick Cavett, Jay Marvin, Jane Pauley
Writers with Bipolar Disorder
Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Louis Althusser, Art Buchwald, Neal Cassady, Abbie Hoffman, Kay Redfield Jamison, (writer, psychologist), Peter Nolan, Lawrence Frances Lear, Rika Lesser, Kate Millet, Robert Munsch, Margo Orum, Simmie, August Strindberg, Joseph Vasquez, Mark Vonnegut, Sol Wachtler, Mary Jane Ward, Virginia Woolf