In Artistic Genius and Madness, Karl Jaspers, one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, develops a comparative study of the life and artistic trajectories of Strindberg, Van Gogh, Swedenborg, and Hölderlin. His analysis of their visionary character is accompanied by a rigorous investigation of the relationship between madness and artistic creativity. What, from the psychiatrist's perspective, is viewed as a "schizophrenic typology," from that of the cultural philosopher is seen as a series of artistic explosions essential to understanding the direction of Western civilization. Artistic Genius and Madness, written in 1922, is one of Jaspers's most original essays and, at the same time, a remarkable experimental analysis that has become a classic.