By Phyllis Groner
Famed pop artist Andy Warhol could have been a case study on the television show “Hoarders,” to hear science journalist Claudia Kalb tell it.
Author Claudia Kalb (l) chats with audience members today at the Westport Library. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com
His home was so jammed with stuff, his rooms so unnavigable, that he never invited people over, Kalb said.
Kalb, author of “Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder: Inside the Minds of History’s Great Personalities,” held a rapt, overflow audience spellbound at the Westport Library’s McManus Room today as she recounted the idiosyncrasies and psychological quirks of 12 of the world’s great minds and personalities.
Kalb’s book suggests Albert Einstein was high on the autism scale, Charles Darwin was riddled with anxiety disorder, Frank Lloyd Wright was a narcissist and George Gershwin had an attention deficit disorder (ADD).
“He had what we would now call ADD,” she said. “He couldn’t sit still in class at school. He had promised to compose some music for a concert, which he had forgotten about. He heard music in noise. ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ was composed as he heard loud sounds around him.
“If he had been treated as he would have been now with Ritalin to calm him down, would the musical genius have emerged?” she asked.
Claudia Kalb today at the Westport Library. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Phyllis Groner for WestportNow.com
And therein lies the questions Kalb poses throughout her work: Would they have produced the brilliant things they did had they been treated for their disorders? Can treatment put the creative process at risk?
If Einstein—who did not talk until he was 3, who often repeated words, and who was isolated in his thought process—had been treated for Asberger’s, perhaps his genius would not have emerged, she says.
“Why do I look at famous people?” Kalb asked. “To raise awareness about mental health and explore people lives.”
For her book, Kalb pored over historical records and interviews with leading mental health experts, biographers, sociologists and other specialists.
“Some personalities helped others by sharing their problems,” she said. “Princess Diana wrote about her battle with Bulimia which helped many people with that problem.”
The late former First Lady Betty Ford did the same when she came out about her alcoholism, she said.
Then there are the larger-than-life individuals whose pain gives one pause.
“I was surprised at how much emotional pain Marilyn Monroe had in her life,” she said. “Did she have borderline personality disorder? She had deep insecurity, rocky relationships.
“She sought help, but it didn’t work,” Kalb added. “If methods were applied that are used now, I think they had a good chance of working.”
During the Q&A session that followed, an audience member asked about reality TV star and Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.
“His name comes up at every lecture,” Kalb said. “Vanity Fair had a study made and the conclusion was that Donald Trump has narcissistic personality disorder.”
(The Mayo Clinic website defines narcissitic personality disorder this way: “a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of ultraconfidence lies a fragile self-esteem that’s vulnerable to the slightest criticism.”)
“On Donald Trump, is there a cure?” someone asked.
“Probably not,” said Kalb.
