Personality and Individual Differences 46 (2009) 765774

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Personality and Individual Differences

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The link between artistic creativity and psychopathology: Salvador Dal

Caroline Murphy
University of Oxford, Department of Experimental Psychology, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3U, UK

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Throughout history, some of the most prominent artists have been linked to mental illness. Salvador Dal, the well-known Surrealist artist, was famous for his craziness in both his shocking art and persona. Information on his behaviour and art comes from various sources such as his autobiography; literary texts; published interviews with friends, family, and the artist himself; letters; and data on his family history. Here, in addition to a descriptive analysis of such data, a formal diagnosis exercise was attempted, using two psychiatric assessment procedures: a computer program investigating the presence of psychotic disorder (OPCRIT) and a personality disorder questionnaire (PDQ-R). Dal was found to meet the diagnostic criteria for several DSM Cluster A and Cluster B personality disorders, as well as for psychotic illnesses. However, these results should be treated with caution, given the hall of mirrors Dal inhabited and the deliberate persona he projected on to the world. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Available online 26 February 2009 Keywords: Salvador Dal Psychopathology OPCRIT PDQ-R Psychotic Personality disorders Schizotypy

There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad. Dal (May 1952) The Shameful Life, p. 628

1. Foreword Although there is a wealth of literature on Salvador Dal, nobody has attempted fully to investigate the truth behind his supposed madness. Many rash, opinionated and conicting comments have been made in books and essays which often lack explanation or evidence. Opinions are generally split. Individuals either perceive the artist to have been a bizarre and mentally disturbed individual, or a compulsive and manipulative liar who feigned his own madness in order to gain success. Discussion here will combine consideration of literature on Dal and his life with recent ideas from experimental abnormal psychology, clinical psychology, and genetics, in order to investigate the potential relationship between Dals artistic creativity and his psychopathology. The difculty in investigating the presence of any psychosis (or psychoticism) underlying Dals behaviour and art is that there are very few sources that have not been inuenced by the artist himself. During his lifetime he went to extraordinary lengths to keep parts of his private life secret. He made attempts to try and ensure that every literary text was read (by himself) and amended prior to publication. The foundation of Dals artistic success was the bizarre personality he had created for himself. It could be said that in order to immortalise the legendary status he received during his lifetime Dal would not allow his true persona to be questioned.

Sebastians Arrows (Maurer, 2004) (containing correspondences between Dal and Frederico Garca Lorca, 19251936), contains very few letters received by the artist. The lack of literary correspondence between Dal and his family, friends, or wife Gala also raises suspicion. Whether Dal discarded any written evidence that hinted some truth about who he really was or whether this was destroyed in the re at his castle in Pubol (30th August 1984) remains a mystery. As a result, Dals deliberately concocted and highly criticised autobiography, The Secret Life (1993), has been used by many in their research. His month-long diary (1920) and Ana Marias Salvador Dal: Visto per su Hermana (1949), make the false tone of The Secret Life glaringly evident. It is the publication of these literary texts, as well as the work of Gibson (1997) and Secrest (1986), that has allowed one to begin to obtain a more thorough and rounded understanding of the artists life and persona. As main sources of information here reference is made to Dals publications (The Manic Eyeball, 2004; The Secret Life, 1993), to The Shameful Life (Gibson), The Surrealist Jester (Secrest) and to the views published or portrayed by others (e.g. in TV/radio interviews); as well as personal interviews/discussion with Gavin Parkinson, Neus Barrantes Vidal, David Lomas, Michael Archer, and researchers at The Centre of Dalinian studies. 2. Artistic creativity and psychopathology The relationship between creativity and psychopathology in visual artists has received rather less attention than in, say, writers. But some work has been reported. On the basis of biographical material Karlsson (1970) found the rate of psychosis in great painters to be 35%, well above that for normal people (2%). Similarly, Schildkraut, Hirschfeld, and Murphy (1996) reported that affective

E-mail address: carolinemurphy1984@hotmail.com 0191-8869/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2009.01.020

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disorders were 10 times more prevalent and the rate of suicidal behaviour three times greater in a group of New York abstract impressionist painters compared to the general population. In a study of living painters (Akiskal & Akiskal, 1988) 50% were found to experience major depressive episodes, while two-thirds had recurrent cyclothymic or hypomanic tendencies. Furthermore, Posts (1994) biographical study on famous visual artists and writers from the past 150 years showed that 37% of the artists suffered from severe psychopathology, 42% from depression and 12.5% from alcohol dependence. Handicapping traits of Cluster C (anxiety based) personality disorders were present in 50% of the visual artists. Turning to personality traits, Csikszentmihalyi and Getzels (1973) found art students to be more sensitive, serious, introspective, adventurous, and radical in views and behaviour. Female visual artists appeared to be more dominant than college females and male artists more sensitive than college males. Compared to visual/advertising art students, those studying ne art were less sociable and conventional, and more sensitive and imaginative. In a later study (Getzels & Csikszentmihalyi, 1976), comparing 176 Chicago art students to 176 non-art students, it was found that the former had a very distinct set of personality characteristics. They were imaginative, radical, self-sufcient, introspective, and amoral. These traits were strongest in the ne arts and the most successful male students. Here results using the Eysenck Psychoticism (P) scale are also of interest. After visual artists had been shown to score more highly than non-artists in P (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975, 1976). Gtz and Gtz (1979a, 1979b) investigated 60 professional German painters and sculptors. They found that artists were indeed more deviant on certain personality traits but that the extent of these traits did not correlate with the individuals talent; instead it was shown to reect how successful they had been in aggressively promoting their work. The authors concluded that, the outcome does not surprise us but conrms that success in the arts is not synonymous with artistic signicance or originality. Talent is needed but, also a capacity to survive the eeting whims of taste, fashion, or claims as to their truth or value, in order to make ones products of originality a success. In commenting on these studies, Eysenck (1994) concluded that, Originality without this often apparently antisocial type of behaviour is likely to wither on the vine, and not lead to creative achievement. Further light has been thrown on this theme in a study by Burch, Pavelis, Hemsley, and Corr (2006). They used the O-LIFE (Mason, Claridge, & Jackson, 1995) and the NEO-FFI (Costa & McCrae, 1992) to compare visual art students and non-art students from London Universitys Goldsmiths College. They found that art students had higher scores on measures of positive, disorganised and antisocial schizotypy as well as neuroticism, openness, and divergent thinking; but they scored lower on agreeableness. Much if the above is in keeping with Rawlings (1984) proposal that whether particular visual artists are more creative than average or not, as a group they do have a propensity to respond antisocially with taboo responses that shock. One has to admit that this sounds very much like Dal.

reections of one and other: he lived and breathed his art. For some Dal has become the epitome of madness itself. But there are several ways of explaining his behaviour. It is possible that: (a) he could indeed have suffered from some sort of psychopathological illness that may have been inherited (along with his creativity); (b) he could have suffered from a personality disorder or at least possessed a collection of disagreeable personality traits that motivated his actions; or (c) he consciously created an artistic personality for himself in order to succeed. These possibilities are not mutually exclusive, but they do help to dene lines of enquiry into his life and work. 3.1. Pointers to psychopathology 3.1.1. Hallucinations In his autobiography (The Secret Life, 1993), Dal described many of his visions with clarity and precision. He claimed in his younger years to have seen a woman in a nightdress seated beside the window in his bedroom (The Surrealist Jester, p. 31). Some of his reported childhood hallucinations were disturbing and there are many reports of him being prevented from sleeping due to his . . .head being full of putrefaction and death (The Surrealist Jester, p. 26). He would imagine baby kangaroos drowning in their mothers pouch full of milk and witnessed re-occurring images of his mother having oral sex with him, swallowing his penis in the process. These sexual images appeared to have haunted him throughout his life. He dedicated pages of his autobiography to the detailed descriptions of the memories of his birth and being inside his mothers womb. Dal talked of imaginary people. Young girls, whom he named Galuchka and Dullita, were created in his mind. He talked of exciting adventures and dramas which contained the two characters and himself. He would interweave real life people such as his (supposed) school-friend Butchaques into the episodes, and it seemed that at times the young Dal may have been losing his ability to discriminate between these dreams and reality. One gets the impression that he preferred to live his life in these imaginary episodes. By having imaginary social interactions, he could turn himself into someone else (hero/bully/lover) and control what exciting things happened. His hallucinations involved more stimulating and rewarding interactions than was possible with his frightening and mentally inferior classmates, with whom he refused to interact. It seemed that Dal became slightly obsessional about his psychic abnormality and tried to keep alive the hallucinations he had already experienced. This was clearly brought home to the present author when visiting the recent (2007) London Tate Modern exhibition of Dals work, which included his lms. These particularly highlighted how Dal brought his nightmarish hallucinations to life. At the time of production, the highly technical and cleverly manipulated images would have been terrifying and years ahead of their time. In the lms Un Chien Andalou, Lage dor, La Chevre Sanitaire, Spellbound, etc. it appears as if Dal has brought all of his paintings, childhood dreams and disturbing thoughts into a shocking reality. It is therefore not a surprise that some were initially banned from public view. 3.1.2. Phobias, fetishism, and obsessions It seems that at as early as seven or eight years of age Dal developed a phobia about blushing (ereutophobia). This made it extremely difcult for him to maintain normal relations with the people around him and forced him to nd ways to disguise or avoid his mortication (The Shameful life, p. 31). Dal also seemed to be a hypochondriac (The Surrealist Jester, p. 61). He had a great interest in psychology and read the works of Freud and Kraft-Ebing with a passion. He used his acquired knowledge to diagnose (or create) his own case with textbook awlessness. When Cravel was visiting the Dals in Port Lligat he had a breakdown and Dal, terried of

3. Salvador Dal Salvador Dal could be described as a philosopher, theorist, lecturer, architect, jeweller, inventor, set and costume designer, novelist, poet, cinema producer and one of the most successful artists of all time. He was continuously creative and his worldwide success is evidence that his productions are appreciated and valued greatly. Yet Dal is as much known for his bizarre behaviour and eccentricity as for his artistic output. He and his art were

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contamination, could not bring himself to go anywhere near him (The Surrealist Jester, p. 155). He was anxious about germs and would inspect his stools and the mucus that resulted from blowing his nose. Paranoia was evident in his report about a hardened piece of greenish snot that had pierced his nger after an attempt to scrape it from the wall. He was convinced that he had caught tetanus and feared that his career would soon be ruined, as he believed that his nger or possibly his whole hand would have to be amputated. When he realized that the fatal lump was in-fact a piece of dried glue, his hysteria subsided (The Surrealist Jester, p. 158). Additional phobias included a fear of grasshoppers (acrididophobia), becoming a father, and travelling. Whenever possible he refused to travel by air (he always travelled by boat even on his visits to New York until, that is, 1975 when he rst went by aeroplane). Any journey was an ordeal; he was always afraid of accidents on trains, cars and boats. (The Scotsman, 1951) Dal had an obsessive attachment to his homeland (Catalonia) and had an extreme need for solitude. When he and his wife Gala returned to their home in Port Lligat (one of the few sparse houses overlooking the beach), they would remain isolated from the world for months. It is possible that it was here that he felt able to escape from the limelight of having to play his exhausting role as Dal. He could be his true self when there was nobody to see. In The Shameful Life (pp. 26 and 46) it was suggested that Dal suffered from deep-rooted excremental obsessions. His favourite part of military service was cleaning the latrines; while in his autobiography he boasts of how he would use his excretory functions to manipulate his parents, . . .leaving deposits in the most inaccessible, or unexpected, places, in order to extract the maximum benets (Manic Eyeball, p. 21). Dal had certain interests which were so intense that his research became rather manic. His interest in psychiatry resulted in him ferociously reading Freuds work as he wanted to know everything about this topic. Similarly, when he was asked to reproduce a Vermeer, his research on the Grand Seigneur of art was shown to become excessive. He went to the extent of nding the artists 10 favourite books, read every book that Vermeer had read on perspective, microscopically studied the way Vermeer applied his paint, and absorbed everything he could about the Jesuit ritualism of Vermeers period. 3.1.3. Unusual sexual behaviour, fears, and anxieties Dal made it very clear in The Secret Life (1993) that he was not a homosexual, but he was extremely troubled by his phobias of the female human body and genitalia (The Shameful Life, p. 207). When he was a student in Madrid he believed that if he was to make love to a woman he would die. According to a friend from his later years, Carlis Lozario, . . .he hated to touch or be touched by women and transsexuals were his ideal escort. Attractive boys were the next best thing (Thurhow, 2004, p. 115). It is known that Dal had a long lasting, both ardent and platonic, relationship with Amanda Lear, a hermaphrodite while his wife was out collecting young males to sequester her sexual needs. It is evident from his paintings (for example, Honey is Sweeter than Blood, Gadget and Hand, The Great Masturbator, The First Days of Spring and The Lugubrious Game) that he was a compulsive masturbator. In his autobiography he explained that he would masturbate naked in front of a mirror and . . .ecstatically sowed my seed along the coves (at Cape de Creus), creating a sort of erotic mass between the earth and my body (The Secret Life, p. 116). He was incredibly ashamed of his fears and method of outlet, which resulted in alienation and sexual loneliness (The Secret Life, p. 216). Dal believed himself to be impotent and adding to the problem were his feelings of inadequacy about the size of his penis and the fact that he claimed to suffer from premature ejaculation (The Shameful Life, pp. 73 and 231). He remained a virgin until he met Gala who he believed cured him of all his fears (Manic Eyeball, pp. 98101). However, Gala

admitted that he was an autoerotic (Etherington-Smith, 1992, p. 129). As time went on, Dal turned into more and more of a voyeur who watched orgies (often involving Gala) that were held for the Surrealists every Wednesday at their home (McGirk (1989) quoting Pastoureau). These sexual abnormalities may have stemmed from his fathers rather unusual method of providing his son with a sexual education. According to Ana Maria (The Surrealist Jester, p. 58) he did this by leaving a graphically illustrated book on venereal disease open on the piano. Alternatively (and quite controversially) Rojas (1990, p. 139) suggested that his sexual inhibitions, reoccurring fears of castration and hallucinations/dreams of his mother committing fellatio with him, may have been a result of the young Dal being sexually abused by his mother. 3.1.4. Paranoia There are many examples suggesting that Dal suffered from some sort of paranoia. Maurice Bjart a renowned choreographer had worked with Dal on a ballet and opera in Venice in 1961. Bjart had visited Dal unannounced on one occasion and spoke of his shock on being faced with the artist trembling all over and making threats towards him. He shouted, You have come to assassinate me!, stated Bejart. Dal later explained his behaviour, speaking of having had a sleepless night and being terrorised by thoughts of death (The Surrealist Jester, p. 240). It is apparent that these thoughts often troubled the artist and caused him great distress. In The Secret Life (p. 358) he wrote, My fear of being afraid had now become a single very precise fear. That of going mad and dying! One of Lydias1 sons died of hunger. Immediately I became a prey to the fear of not being able to swallow my food. His fears didnt loosen their grip on me for a single moment. It is apparent that Dals fear of ying may have been intensied by these paranoias. Secrest (p. 208) spoke of a time when Dal . . .decided to y back to Paris from New York and he and Gala . . .swore everyone to secrecy. He was . . .irrationally convinced that someone would put a bomb on the plane if he were known to be a passenger. Dal was pre-occupied by his beliefs that people were planning to threaten his life or fame. When he and Gala were residing in hotels, for example, they were well-known for being difcult and insisting that all their food be tasted in advance by their chauffeur. The food had to be sent up by Laurent and Stout2 would serve it, as they were extremely suspicious of strangers (New York Times, 1980) and would insist that strict routines were followed. At times Dal would cut himself off from the world and was unreachable even by letter and telephone. Ana Maria Dal called for a public enquiry: Even his family and his most intimate friends cannot see him. This will be fatal, for his health and for his spirit. (The Surrealist Jester, p. 240). He and Gala were also obsessed about getting older and would take various remedies to try and prevent the aging process. It could therefore be said that Dal felt threatened by the realities of life itself. This was particularly apparent in Dals frustrations in his later years that were reected in his depressive and frighteningly bizarre episodes that were often the result of his inability to paint. It could be said that Dal resented the aging process because it inicted fragility upon him, was uncontrollable and most importantly restricted his way of life, affected his art and threatened his success. 3.1.5. Uncontrollable temper tantrums As a child Dal had great power over his family. In The Diary of a Genius (1994, p. 19), Dal opens with, He is the hero who revolts against paternal authority and conquers it. From accounts given by his sister Ana Maria he caused anxiety, horror and fear in his
Lydia was one of Dal and Galas maids at their residence at Port Lligat. Michael Ward Stout was Dals lawyer and worked for him for many years. He accompanied Dali and his wife everywhere and recalled his exhausting stay at The St Regis hotel (in February 1980).
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parents, who ensured that even his most frivolous whim was granted. Ana Maria reported (1949, p. 16) that when Dal was a child, They gave him so many presents. . .that he used to go quite berserk. The controversy over the childs sanity was the topic of many conversations in his hometown after a pronounced episode at school where the young Dal demolished a students violin without warning, reason, or thought to the consequences. Even in his later years Dal had tantrums. According to Buuel the painter became extremely jealous when Frederico Garca Lorcas star began to shine. All of a sudden Dal would disappear and not show up for two or three days. . . This was one of his many methods of distracting them onto the topic of Dal (Buuel, 1982). Dal wanted his own merits and eccentricities to be the centre of everybodys attention. 3.1.6. Narcissism and megalomania In The Secret Life Dal declared that he once wanted to be a cook; at age seven he wanted to be Napoleon and his ambition had been growing thereafter. Eventually he wished to become the real Salvador Dal. He compared himself to saints and mystics and (in 1960) even declared himself one. I am. . .the re-incarnation of one of the greatest of all Spanish mystics, St John of the Cross. I can remember vividly my life as St John, of experiencing divine union, of undergoing the dark night of the soul of which he writes with so much feeling. I can remember the monastery. . . (New York Herald Tribune, 1960). From an early age, Dal believed very much in his artistic capacity and he was convinced that he was predestined for great things. Early in his career under the supervision of Juan Nuez he would be offended by his masters corrections. All individuals occupying a position of authority came into conict with the artist. Dal was accustomed to constant adoration: for example, on her deathbed his grandmother announced, My grandson is in Madrid. My grandson will be a great painter. The best Catalan painter ever. . .. (Dal, 1949). So high was his sense of self-importance that he even claimed domination over Surrealism itself. In an interview with Halsman, he was asked, What is Surrealism? and in reply he answered, Surrealism is myself (Dal & Halsman, 1994). 3.1.7. Exhibitionism and transvestism Dal had a craving for nudity and would paint in the nude in his family laundry excited by the fear of being caught. Moreover, he liked to dress up in disguises. It was a hobby he never outgrew. As a child he was given an ermine cape, a golden sceptre, and a gold crown all of which he adored. In The Secret Life (p. 70) he explains how he would dress up in nothing but (his) kings costume and, standing in front of the mirror, pushed my sexual parts back out of sight and squeezed them between my thighs so as to look as much as possible like a girl. As a young teenager he grew his hair long and would sneak into his mothers room and put on eyeliner, powder his face and bite his lips until they were red (Etherington-Smith, 1992, p. 24). There are many photographs of Dal (The Shameful Life gures 23, 30, 37, 38, 66, 67) looking vampish. He is for instance seen in a one-piece swimsuit at Cadaques, waving from the tip of a rock with his right arm in a graceful curve, looking like Miss Universe (The Surrealist Jester, p. 77). One sees him in his studio in Figueres (192324), pretending to be Nefertiti and wearing a skirt. He stated that, . . .the absence of the male sex organs is the idealized Dal. . .I have desired ever since to be like a beautiful woman (The Secret Life, pp. 169170). This could have been the long-term effect of a doting mother and a house full of smothering women. Even Dals everyday and formal clothes were eccentric. His costumes were constantly changing and there was a hidden agenda behind each design. Not long after he arrived in Madrid he cut

off his long hair and dressed like a handsome gentleman. He wanted to show his friends that he could be Dalinian in any attire. In the summer of 1924 he starved himself to the point of anorexia (The Surrealist Jester, p. 110), and allowed his skin to transform into a dark leather. His extremely bizarre bachelorgirl outt which was created for his rst meeting with Gala was designed with an unsuccessful aim of ensuring that she realized that she was to keep away. As with many of his costumes he used it as a method of alienation. The eccentricity of his appearance forced inferiority on anyone that tried to come too close. It consisted of a silk blouse with enormous puffed sleeves, a low neckline and a necklace and bracelet of pearls. He attacked the shirt with scissors so that one of his nipples, a shoulder, and his navel could be seen. He cut his knees and armpits so that they were bloodied and his trousers were put on inside-out. The nal touches were an enormous red geranium placed behind his ear and a grotesque stink that he manufactured out of sh glue, aspic, and goat manure. Dal used his appearance as a form of selfadvertisement which enhanced the uniqueness of his pre-designed ideal. Some such as Prince de Jean-Louis Faucigny-Lucinge at rst were rather dubious. He described (in an interview, discussed by Secrest in The Surrealist Jester, p. 195) how he almost cancelled a night out in New York with Dal thinking to himself, How can I walk around with a gure of fun? Yet the people surrounding Dal soon found that his costumes were extremely successful (He was instantly recognised and received everywhere The Surrealist Jester, p. 195). His image was important in his success and a writer for Life (24th July 1970) observed The mad genius sells like nothing else. Dal was extremely vain. He had a need for adoration and constant re-assurance of his beauty, uniqueness and genius from those surrounding him. The need to construct an idealized personality is one of the ways in which children can compensate for an inadequate sense of self-worth and the greater the deciency felt, the larger and the more grandiose the ambition. Dals lack of selfworth may have been the result of both his parents believing the Dal we know to be a re-incarnation of their dead son (also named Salvador). From an early age he believed that he was not being loved for himself or more precisely was being valued for what he was not. In The Secret Life he stated that, when (he) looked in his mothers eyes what (he) saw was not (his) own reection, but a ghost (p. 58). He stated that his elder brother was, . . .buried with half my soul. (Manic Eyeball, p. 44) 3.2. Other personality and social difculties Dals sister described her brother as . . .an exemplary being. Tender, full of charm and thoughtfulness. . . (1949, p. 32). She expressed the presence of his more pleasant and sensitive side to his private personality. However, whatever personality Dal was portraying, one could never conclude his behaviour to be normal. During lunch when I was commenting on the unhappy end of our good professor of mathematics, and although I was sincerely affected, I felt an irresistible desire to laugh. I do not know why. (Age 16) The Surrealist Jester (p. 105) Dal seemed very nervous in social situations and this tendency to laugh hysterically yet uncontrollably and often inappropriately appeared when Dal was sixteen. When Mari and Buuel took Dal under their wing, introducing him to the art circles in Paris, Dal would sit and laugh in sheer panic. A similar pattern was seen in his early encounters with Gala. He could not speak for his

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continuous inappropriate tears and laughter. People in Madrid detected his extreme timidity; Jos Bello3 described him some years after their rst meeting as, . . .the most self conscious person he had ever met, blushing frequently and almost sick with timidity (The Shameful Life, p. 93). Julien Levy (who met Dal in the summer of 1931) explained the artists behaviour during their rst meeting; He was disquieting to me. . .not because of ambiguity but rather by his single-minded intensity and frankness. He xed his piercing black eyes on me; he crowded against me, his restless hands picking at my sleeve or suit lapel or uttering emphatically as he described his Dalnian theories. . .His eyes rattled like frantic juggling balls and his teeth gnawed at his lip until it was visibly sore. . . (Levy, 1977, p. 80) During an interview, David Gascoyne (the surrealist who stayed with the Dals in Paris for a week) described the artist as very agreeable and elegant. . .a secretive man. . .who had nervous habits. . . which he believed Dal cultivated (The Surrealist Jester, pp. 139140). People who were new to Dal seemed to concern him the most. Once individuals had come to believe in his genius, his personality switched and in his later years, Dal often talked brutally and with little tact. Even his friends were often left shocked at some of his comments. Gasch,4 the biographer who received hundreds of letters from the painter, stressed (1953) the artists innate irony, incredible cruelty and complete lack of heart. It seemed that Dal had no sense of (or simply didnt care) what was and was not socially appropriate. This side of Dal s character was graphically illustrated in a recent BBC4 lm about his engagement with the Surrealists, including his clash with Andre Breton, the main founder of the movement (Broughton, 2002). The lm portrays how on February 5th, 1934, Andr Breton summoned the Spaniard to a trial. Breton was angered by Dals recent behaviour and believed that his work (The Enigma of William Tell) made fun of the Surrealist hero Lenin and highlighted Dals support of Hitler. During the questioning, Dal stated that . . .all disasters are beautiful. . .earthquake, rail accident, train. . . Breton commented that Hitler is a mass murderer and Dal explained so is Marquis de Sade. Both men push back the boundary of taste to a fantastical extreme. When asked if he admired Hitler, Dals response was: He is a magnicent icon. . .is the Cecil B. DeMille of massacre and death. He is a Surrealist. 3.2.1. Non-conformity, obstinacy, and contrariness . . .my continual and ferocious need to feel myself different made me weep with rage if some coincidence should bring me. . .into the same category as others. Before all and whatever cost; myself alone! Myself alone! Myself alone! (The Secret Life, p. 116) This character trait was seen at a young age. Even his mother Felipa Domenech admitted to her friends that, He always has got to do just the opposite of everyone else. . . (The Secret Life, p. 44). Whether this trait was genetically built into his nature or whether it was nurtured into him by his parents is another question. Being the only young male in the house he had the adoration of his mother, grandmother, aunt, and nurse. Not helping the matter, his freethinking father (although a wealthy notary) believed his son should go to the local communal school. They dressed him in

elaborate nery and he gained a feeling of superiority among the poorer children (The Secret Life, pp. 35 and 36). He was a target for bullies and had no friends. In attempts to gain the respect and admiration of his classmates, without warning he would often throw himself down an enormous ight of stairs-ending up . . .bruised but miraculously intact (Dal, as told to Alexander Elliot, in an interview with the author, The Surrealist Jester, p. 43). His rebelliousness was also seen at The School of Fine Arts in Madrid. After being suspended for a year on the 17th of October 1923 (for supposedly causing trouble following the results for the election of a new professor), he was ofcially expelled from the school on the 12th of November 1926 for insulting all members of staff (by stating that none of the examiners was t to examine him). Dal also broke from the Surrealists (1940). Dal did what Dal wanted to do; no boundaries could be forced on him, especially where his art was concerned. Andr Breton, the leader of the Surrealists (who were followers of the Communist party) believed that Dals eulogy of Hitler could bring about the ruin of Surrealism. The Enigma of William Tell showing Lenin nude from the waist down upset him greatly. As a result, from 1934 onwards the rebels relationship with the Surrealists crumbled and his commitment to the group faded. 3.2.2. Inability to look after himself Dals mother was highly anxious about her sons health when he was a child. Dal told a French psychiatrist that whenever he went out his mother would say, Take your mufer, cover yourself up; if not, youll die like your brother. . .of meningitis. (The Surrealist Jester, p. 25) According to Ana Maria, her mother so feared the outside world she took pains to keep her children playing safely at home (Ana Maria, 1949, p. 41). Her behaviour, based on these fears, resulted in Dal having very little self-reliance even in his adulthood. His father was aware of his inabilities and when Dal (April 1926) received an invitation from Buuel to visit Paris, his father sent his sister and step mother to accompany him. When Dal returned to Paris alone (Spring 1929) his practical incompetence became well-known among his friends (Thirion, Buuel, and Mari). His only means of transport was taxi. He fell down several times a day, he was afraid of almost everything. He could not buy shoes because he was unable to expose his feet in public and he was an absolute victim of rigorous habit. Each day he ate the same things in the same restaurants and took the same walks. He would often lose his keys and wallet, and leave his change behind (Thirion, 1975). Dal was in constant need of a main carer and when his mother died Gala took her place. In return for a luxurious and extravagant life she provided for all his needs. She managed his life, his work, and money. Dal simply followed her orders like a puppet on a string. 3.2.3. Money Dals ambivalent attitude towards money was much remarked upon later in his life. While he appeared to be money focused and tight-sted, especially when it came to paying for services, his ability to throw money away and inability to handle it was legendary. Dals father would sew his money into his collar when he went off alone in fear that he would give it all away. Once when walking along the street in Madrid, he spotted an old beggar woman and instead of giving her some small change, he went and bought her a vast quantity of gardenias (The Surrealist Jester, p. 72). Money was something he had never had to deal with as his father (nicknamed the money doctor) always followed after him paying his bills (Del Arco & Dal, 1984, p. 72). Once Gala appeared on the scene she rather happily took over his nancial affairs. Prior to his days of celebrity, Dal would ask friends for large loans of money which he often failed to return. Lorca, Picasso, Eluard, and

Taken from a conversation with Don Jose Bello, Madrid, 14th October 1992. Gasch died failing to publish even a fraction of his correspondences with Dali. He continuously refused access to researchers and so when, if ever they become available, they will undoubtedly enhance our knowledge and understanding of Dali.
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his father would often receive a letter asking for them to bail him out. 3.2.4. Callousness, coldness, and manipulative indifference Dal was not comfortable with emotional attachment. From an early age it seemed that he was terried of anyone ruining his solitude. As a child he was enraged by children who dared to come near him. He later stated, I did not want anyone to touch me, to talk to me, to disturb what was going on in my head. . . My state of mind became aggressive toward anything or anyone who, deliberately or otherwise, challenged my solitude. (The Secret Life, p. 75) He was even seen to be angered at the fact that he was falling for Gala: She prevented me from working, she insinuated herself surreptitiously into my brain, she depersonalized me. Moreover I was convinced that she was going to do me harm (The Secret Life, p. 233). He didnt like losing control; yet Gala was possibly the only person who triumphed in breaking through his barriers. However, Dal needed her and it could be said that, like Siamese twins, they existed together harmoniously, living off each other. In his behaviour towards others Dal was cruel and manipulative. Instead of being ashamed, he boasted about the power he had which allowed him to treat people as he wished. He surrounded himself with wealthy, beautiful, intelligent friends of high status who, according to Gibson (The Shameful Life, p. 163), were purposely chosen depending on what he could gain from them. Once Dal had succeeded in retrieving what he wanted, these friendships often came to an abrupt end. In his later years he enhanced his solitude further by cutting off his family. Several examples illustrate Dals harshness in relationships. The famous art critic Sebasti Gasch had a very close relationship with Dal, one that came to a brusque and unexpected end. The LExpress journalist, Jean Francois Fogel, spent 30 years in conversations with Dal. He described him as being exhausting, completely egotistical He stated: I do not see him as a humourist, he has nothing to do with mankind. He is concerned only with himself. He could not afford to make a gift, he had to use everything (The Surrealist Jester, p. 238). Gasch supplied Dal with professional coverage of his painting activities in the new and popular art magazines. Years later he recalled the painters innate irony and that . . .everything that Dal said and did revealed a complete lack of heart. In him sensitivity was totally absent. . . (Gasch, 1953, pp. 143144). The French artist Yves Tanguy was another victim of Dals apparent charm. Not only did Dal steal a number of that painters creative ideas for his own works but in later life he boastfully admitted to Agnes Tanguy (the painters niece): I pinched everything from your Uncle Yves (Dal, 1973, p. 12). Although Salvador Dal senior was a loving, supporting and proud father, he was another victim of his sons brutality. As a child Dal seemed to revel in frustrating and angering his father. At the age of 8 he would continue to wet the bed. He would induce coughing and choking ts and refused to learn from his teachers (The Manic Eyeball, pp. 2021). The father-son relationship was a continuous battle (always under Dal juniors control). The nal blows directed at his father included: his public statement declaring that he enjoyed spitting on his dead mothers portrait; his claim that his favourite fantasy was the thought of sodomizing his dying father; and his marriage to Gala (who was already married and believed by Dals father to be a drug dealer, an addict, and a whore). An explanation for Dals behaviour is not clear although one may suggest that he resented: his father loving his dead brother more; his fathers marriage to his dead mothers sister; or his fathers initial lack of faith in Salvadors artistic abilities. The famous Andalusian poet Federico Garca Lorca (who met Dal in 1923 at the Progressive Students Residence in Madrid) may have been Dals closest companion but it could be argued that he was on the receiving end of one of Dals most brutal attacks. On

his deathbed Dal talked on numerous occasions of Lorca. Suggesting that his love for the poet never dimmed and the break was simply a reaction to his own and others growing suspicions about his sexuality. In reading their correspondence in Sebastians Arrows (Maurer, 2004), their relationship seemed almost like a love affair. Dal was shown to be incredibly cruel. He explained in 1966 (30 years after Lorcas death) that he was . . .extremely annoyed with the poet because although Dal . . .was not a homosexual Lorca was . . .madly in love with him and had . . .tried to screw (him) twice (Bosquet, 1969, p. 36). After receiving a newly published collection of Lorcas poems, Romancero gitano (April 1928), Dal wrote the poet a long letter denouncing his work as retrogressive, stereotyped, commonplace, and conformist. Dal continued to insult his friend by expressing his beliefs that he was a dirty bastard, a queer and went further than any impudence ever dreamt by the Surrealists (Bosquet 1969, p. 37). The production of Dal and Buuels lm Un Chien Andalou (the Andalucian dog), was a nal blow to the poets self-esteem. Many malicious and cruel innuendos were directed towards the poets homosexuality and sexual difculties. Lorcas humiliation and anger at being made to look a fool was apparent in his conversation with a friend in New York in 1930: Buuel has made a tiny little shit of a lm called Un Chien Andalou and Im the Dog. (The Shameful Life, pp. 195197). Finally, the following is typical of Dals callousness throughout his life. On 17th September 1975 the ailing Franco ordered the execution of ve Liberation (1980) Basque terrorists, pardoning six others. Dal sent a telegram of congratulations. In an interview on the French radio he corrected himself saying that Franco ought to have executed them all (Navarro & Busuets, 1985, pp. 4849). 3.3. His later life and signs of mental illness Galas announcement that she no longer loved Dal (1981) (Carol, Navarro Arisa, & Busquets, 1985, pp. 6263), her request for a divorce, and her death (10th June 1982) are thought to have caused the deterioration in Dals mental health. During this time Dal would not wear pants and used to urinate in the replace out of sheer panic (The Surrealist Jester, p. 25). He was a recluse and all daylight was shuttered out. As in his earlier years, he was convinced that everyone was out to get him and take advantage of his wealth whilst he was in a weak and vulnerable state. His moods were unpredictable and he complained of an inability to sleep as well as nightmares and hallucinations. He thought he was a snail and lived trapped by the fantasies of his brain. He had consultations with psychiatrists throughout his later life (Antonio Puigvert, an old friend Jean Obiols, Ramon Vidal Teixidor, Dr. Roumegure, the neurologist Dr. Manuel Subirana who prescribed an intense anti-depressive treatment and Dr. Franois Lermitte). But his thoughts continued to be very dark and he was pre-occupied with death. He refused to eat, was being fed intravenously and his weight dropped steadily. On January 23, 1989 aged 85, surrounded by his masterpieces in a tower of his museum in Figueres, he died from heart failure. 3.4. Genetics: mental illness in the family Dals grandfather was a businessman who liked to take his chances on the stock exchange. (The Surrealist Jester, p. 23) He was already suffering from a form of persecution mania when he lost his fortunes and took a turn for the worse. On the 10th April 1886 he unsuccessfully attempted suicide. However, six days later, he threw himself off a balcony into the street, dying instantly. The subject of this suicide became a taboo in the family. The great concern about inherited paranoia and depression was justied when a number of years later Dals uncle tried to kill himself in the same way as his father. Dals father was well-known in their town for

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his violent, unpredictable and difcult manner. (The Surrealist Jester, pp. 23 and 24) The notary was respected in the community for his intellect and honesty but it was apparent that his power and militant personality made people (including his son) uneasy. To add to Dals fear were the famous stories told in Cadaques, the village he loved dearly, where he spent all his childhood holidays and near where he and Gala built their home. It was believed that there was a curse on the town that under the inuence of the dire wind (the Tramuntana) people in Cadaques would commit suicide. It was said that, once touched by the Tramuntana, always touched: madness was your predestined fate. From a young age, Dal was aware of the possibility that mental illness ran in his blood. The telling of such stories to a young boy is enough to cause some deep-rooted concern from which an obsession and paranoia may have grown. Although there is a possibility that the artist had inherited his grandfathers genetic predisposition to psychological disorder, the fact that Dal may have been forever questioning his sanity could alone have resulted in substantial knock-on effects on his mental health.

it was of great benet to him that the artistic trend during his lifetime favoured madness. 4.2. Dals use of art as a way to survive in the world As Graham Greene once expressed, I sometimes wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear which is inherent in the human condition (Greene, 1981, p. 211). It could be predicted that if Dal were mentally ill, there could have been a bidirectional relationship between his strangeness and his creativity. It is clear that his strangeness inuenced his art but his art may also have had a positive effect on his strangeness; acting as a form of catharsis for him, allowing his bizarre perverted thoughts to escape onto the canvas, resulting in the release of any built up tension and guilt. By painting, he was given the opportunity to explore his thoughts in a way that may otherwise not have been possible, like a diary of his minds obscurities; a way of confronting his confessions and externalising the chaos within. On his deathbed Dal was desperate to paint and Elda Ferrer (his nurse at Pubol) spoke of his . . .hallucinations, constant sobbing, and hours making animal noises but he simply could not hold the brush (Ferrer, 1989). The fact that his last oils show horror and death suggests Dals torture. It could be said that Dal was not receiving his therapy and without the release of the nightmarish images Dals mental state rapidly deteriorated. His exceptional ability to paint with great precision and his dedication to his work could have been the factors that allowed him to survive in the world. For one could ask in what other profession would that have been possible? 4.3. Protection by privilege Although Dal talked briey of visits to the psychiatrist (The Secret life, p. 25) and a hint of treatment with antidepressants for around twenty years, during my visit to the Centre of Dalnian studies in Figueres, Cristina Jutge assured me that there are no medical records or literary evidence suggesting any mental illness throughout the artists life. However, it is possible that Dal was shielded by his money, fame, and the attractive friends and intellectuals with whom he surrounded himself. His status and success would not allow anyone to seriously question or investigate his mental health. It is unusual, however, that in his younger years his parents or friends did not question why he behaved in such ways. His parents may have been afraid to admit the fact that their son had inherited the unmentionable illness that had marked their family history. By continually protecting their son and treating him as normal they may have hoped that the problem would not tarnish their sons future. It is understandable that they could not bear to lose their second son to illness like their rst. One also has to realize that Dal had an incredibly privileged life. He was born to a wealthy family and had everything he could want or need for success. His father had connections with powerful people in the art world. He was friendly with Pepito Pichot (the brother of the contemporary artist Ramon Pichot) and Ana Maria claimed that her brothers rst box of oil paints was given to him by the German Painter, Siegfried Burmann. He was able to attend the municipal art school in Figueres, apply for a place at the Academy in Madrid, and visit the Louvre in Paris. If Dal were ill then his father made sure his son was given every chance of success. If Dal had been born into different circumstances then his future may have been extremely different. Dals friends and the public may have failed to question the artists sanity simply because they saw his art and personality as a package. Dal advertised his art with his behaviour and his persona became his trademark. The mysticism behind his eccentricity may have hidden the possibility that he was mentally ill. He

4. Interpretations of Dals art and behaviour 4.1. Dal and Surrealism Surrealism was a revolutionary, subversive movement that aimed at changing the world by tapping and liberating the forces latent in the psyche. Artists were psychoanalytically orientated and used techniques such as automatism as a method of transferring the unconscious onto canvas without any disturbance from consciousness. They adopted Freud as their patron saint and the group leaned heavily on the idea of shock through paradox. Why did Dal choose to join the Surrealist movement? What attracted him to the bizarre and frightening themes which their art contained? One explanation is that he was merely attracted to the outrageousness of the Surrealists apparently deliberate attempt to look crazy, reinforced by societys preconceptions about madness and genius. Becker (20002001), drawing upon Jaspers views on this, notes that the more frequent appearance of madness in geniuses is. . .a result of societys selective granting of fame. Sass (1992, 20002001) makes the similar point that society expects artists to appear slightly mad or is more accepting of madness if it is accompanied by great artistic creativity. Society may also predict that the more unusual the personality traits exhibited by an individual, the more artistic potential and success they may possess. Another possibility is that strangeness came easily to Dal: it was perhaps easy for him to train his mind to become almost automatic in producing horrifying thoughts. But whether or not Dal was stable to begin, the effects of immersing himself in a continuous world of bizarre thoughts must surely have affected his mental stability. Perhaps he sacriced his true self for his artistic success, selling his appearance, his personality, and character for his art. He studied Freuds theories in great depth. As Freud resuscitated Oedipus, Dal reinterpreted William Tell. His hand-painted dream photographs were supposedly representing the release of his inner emotions, obsessions and fears and therefore portrayed him to be an extremely complicated and rather disturbed individual, suffering from the majority of the illnesses Freud discussed. However, if his paintings were to be admired and if he was to be respected as a true Surrealist his behaviour would have to mirror the symptoms of the illnesses that his paintings portrayed. However, one may ask whether this would be possible without a tint of madness to begin with. Alternatively, one could argue that Dals success was the result of luck. If he was naturally a bizarre individual then

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continuously highlighted the fact that he was not ill whilst persistently showing purposeful signs of lunacy. It is possible that the true Dal was scared and constantly haunted by his instability. Very few of those people that respected him as an artist and businessman would have been capable of understanding any underlying problems. In general, people nd it easier to laugh at an entertaining madman than feel sympathy for the mentally unstable. His persona made his rather dark and sinister art more enjoyable. Wearing a rather extravagant mask of madness, and openly boasting to the world about ones most shocking secrets, is a rather clever tactic for reducing the risk of anyone trying to delve any deeper. Many authors therefore take Dal at face value, as an attention seeking brat. This is the conclusion that Dal hoped for as his fragility was hidden and he was capable of climbing his tower of success. 4.4. It was all a big act As stated earlier, the majority of writers who discuss Dal do not attempt to answer the question as to whether he was mentally ill but perceive his behaviour as self-indulgent exhibitionism. They see a method in his madness, with one true aim: money. Andr Brenton went as far as dubbing him Avida Dollars (The Surrealist Jester, p. 199). In line with Gtz and Gtzs ndings (1979a, 1979b) it seems clear that Dal had a ferocious aptitude for the art of self-promotion. He appeared tirelessly willing to emphasise the same message wherever he went, according to the most advanced advertising principles. Dal knew what his audience wanted and found ways of manipulating his appearance, behaviour, and artistic works to adapt to their needs. Under the spell of Gala he turned into a pushy and manipulative money making machine. Even on his deathbed Dal was only interested in how much press attention he was receiving. He requested a television be placed in his room so he could watch the reports of his impending death (Etherington-Smith, 1992, p. 418). Dal loved publicity and was not fazed by the names he was called; he revelled in them. This was evident in an interview in LExpress (1st March 1971). After being asked if he still had any great living enemies he answered, None I believe. But I would like the whole world to be my enemy. Those who are against me are often extremely intelligent, admirable really. . .the sub-Dalnians, they are the real idiots. He admired those who fed his thirst and fullled his aim to be recognised everywhere as a madman. However, Dal emphasised that he was the master of his lunacy. He wanted people to believe that he was using his high ego-strength to dip in and out of a state of mental illness as he wished, in order to aid in the production of his work. If it was true that Dal did possess this ego-strength one could be led to believe that in some instances he came very close to the edge of sanity and almost lost control. Whether he lost control at any point is a matter for debate. 4.5. Alcohol and other drugs Dal lived a relatively sober life and was not a big drinker. Nor is it likely that he indulged in other drugs, though the evidence is unclear. It is almost certainly true that many of the Surrealists did dabble in the use of opium, LSD, and hash to aid them in the production of their dream photographs; but this almost certainly did not include Dal. Thus Gavin Parkinson, in a personal communication, assured me that Elliot King (an acquaintance of Descharnes) had told him that Dal was reported never to have taken hallucinogenic drugs. On the other hand, after treating Dal in 1983 (following a re at his home) Dr. Garcia San Miguel (1984) declared that the elderly Dal asked his unwilling attendants for LSD . . .to inspire images for his painting. Gibson also believed that Dal was not adverse to the occasional experiment (The Shameful Life, p. 609). But

there is no conclusive evidence either way. Gibson (1997) highlighted that, if anything, the artist wanted the public to believe that he strongly disagreed with the use of drugs. He did not need drugs as he wanted everyone to think he was equally or even more successful than the other Surrealists in his production of dream paintings using his natural abilities. Or, as Dal himself put it: I dont do drugs. I am drugs. Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic. Dal (1970)

5. Attempting a formal diagnosis It is not necessary for me psychoanalysis, because I am not crazy. You see my kind of craziness is one craziness of precision and clarity, to the contrary of a psychopathalogicals craziness. Salvador Dal in an interview with Mike Wallace (on WABC-TV, 1956) As a nal stage in this study of Dal it was decided to subject all of the material collected about him to formal diagnostic assessment. It goes without saying that such an exercise is fraught with dangers of error, exaggeration, and overinterpretation; especially so in the case of Dal given that the truth about his mental state is masked by secrecy and deliberate deception. The following, more psychiatric, analysis of Dal should therefore be taken for what it is: simply an attempt to throw light, from a different perspective, on the mystery of Dals psychology. Two assessment procedures were used, corresponding to the two areas of psychopathology where questions have been asked about Dal. One was OPCRIT, a computerised procedure intended to provide diagnoses for psychotic illness according to 12 different published systems (McGufn and Farmer, 2004). The other was the PDQ-R (Dowson, 1992) designed to diagnose the presence or absence of the personality disorders listed in DSM-III-R. As far as we are aware, the PDQ-R has never been used as a psychobiographical tool in the form employed here. However, OPCRIT has been used for this purpose by Claridge (1998) as a supplement to the psychiatric assessments of creative writers previously evaluated in less detail by Claridge, Pryor, and Watkins (1998). For our purposes here, both OPCRIT and PDQ-R were used very conservatively, with strict criteria being applied for endorsing items as contributing to a diagnosis. To this end, for each item it was ensured that at least one example of an episode of behaviour from Dals lifetime could be unambiguously identied. If little evidence was available, the question was left blank. Results are shown in Tables 1 and 2. It is clear from Table 1 that, formally rated, Dal met the criteria for several of the diagnostic labels for psychosis. Interestingly, the pattern of diagnoses a mixture of schizophrenic and affective was not dissimilar to that reported by Claridge (1998) for
Table 1 OPCRIT diagnosis results. Classication DSM-III Taylor and Abrams RDC Carpenter Schneider FRS French classication Farmer Crow Tsuang and Winokur Suggested diagnosis Atypical psychosis Schizophrenia Schizoaffective/bipolar Level 6 schizophrenia FRS-Schizophrenia Delusional attack P type Type II Hebephrenic

Note: No diagnosis was suggested for three other classications considered by OPCRIT: DSM-IIIR, ICD-10, and Feighner.

C. Murphy / Personality and Individual Differences 46 (2009) 765774 Table 2 PDQ-R results. Personality disorder Paranoid Schizoid Schizotypal Antisocial Borderline Histrionic Narcissistic Avoidant Dependent Obsessive compulsive DSM code 00 20 22 70/70B 83 50 81 82 60 40 Score 5/7 4/7 4/9 1/9 + 2/12 2/8 6/8 5/9 3/7 4/9 3/9 Diagnosed Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No No No

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Roberts and Kathleen Murphy for performing the tedious job of proofreading each draft. For their helpful comments and opinions thanks are due to: Gavin Parkinson (Lecturer in the History of Art, University of Oxford); David Lomas (Reader in Art History, University of Manchester); Michael Archer (Tutor in Art History, Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford); Neus Barrantes Vidal (Personality and Clinical Psychologist Universitat Autnoma de Barcelona); and the staff (especially Cristina Jutge) at the Centre of Dalinian studies (Figueres) for making my visit extremely benecial. References

creative writers in whom, compared with Dal, there was much more corroborated evidence of psychotic illness. The schizophrenic/affective mix also accords with the conclusion (e.g. by Nettle (2002)) that both elements may be relevant to creativity. Turning to the PDQ-R (Table 2), it can be seen that Dal met the criteria for several personality disorders. Notably, unlike Posts (1994) artists, who suffered more often from Cluster C (anxiety based) personality disorders, the diagnoses for Dal suggests more the presence of paranoid and schizoid (Cluster A) as well antisocial, histrionic, and narcissistic (Cluster B) disorders. This prole would be consistent with less formal accounts of his behaviour, already reviewed. Dr. Garcia San Miguel, who looked after Dal in May 1983 had some interesting opinions which mirror the above ndings: from a psychiatric viewpoint Dal had a psychopathological personality with very marked depressive traits. He suffered from moderate arteriosclerosis which became worse when Dal was excited. Further he noted that, Dal was quite lucid but he had a personality that expressed itself in aggressive acts, insults and a tendency towards hiding and darkness (The Secret Life, p. 609).

6. Conclusions Even if the formal diagnostic descriptions just presented are discounted as taking the judgment of Dals psychology a step too far, from all of the evidence presented here it is difcult to escape the conclusion that he was a highly unusual personality, with traits and possible predispositions to mental illness that are consistent with connections that are known to exist with creativity. Dal could be classed as an extreme artist and could never be dened as a normal individual. No normal person would go to such lengths in order to gain success or perhaps more to the point be able to think up the images in his work. The domination of his life by his grandiose ambitions, the writing of his self-obsessed autobiography, a life of showmanship, and the marriage to a woman who used, abused, and humiliated him all combine to signify some form of deviation from the norm; even allowing for the fact he might consciously even cynically have exploited this for his own, commercial or other, ends. But, nally, it cannot be stated too strongly that Dals deviation from the norm should not be allowed take away any of his greatness. It is too easy to react negatively when the term disorder is used, in any context. Dal and his contribution to the history of art is a perfect example for highlighting the fact that abnormality is not necessarily disagreeable or to be so readily dismissed as a sign of neurological disease. For without his instability, Dal may not have created the great art that he did.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Gordon Claridge for his constant encouragement, support, and interest throughout and Helen

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