Is College Education some Unnecessary Stress for Poets

Abstract The biographical research that we ran on 50 eminent Romanian poets (scanning 140 years, from 1850 to 1990) comes up with a figure of 44 (88%) cases of psychopathology and invites the gruesome conclusion that psychopathology and (poets’) creativity are inexorably connected, that psychopathology although not sufficient is necessary to make an eminent poet. Now, given that psychopathology is most likely to be inherited and has little to do with the environment (educational institutions included) we are led to another unpleasant conclusion, viz. poetry has little to do with college education. College won’t ruin the “frame,” but neither will it help.