The Romantic Cure to Creative Neurosis: John Keats’ Ode to Psyche and the Relationship Between Creativity and Suffering

In the Romantic period, the concept of the ‘genius’ moved out of the external realm of ‘pagan piety’ and into the inner realm of the lone suffering artist afflicted by their own genius. John Keat’s Ode to Psyche sits at the intersection between two worldviews—one of antiquity which looks outwards for creative inspiration, and that of the more ‘modern’ view, which confuses the ‘genius’ for the artist. This has inadvertently proven to be the root of creative neurosis.