What Is Bipolar Disorder?

Take our Bipolar Disorder Test

Find a therapist to treat bipolar disorder

Ted Turner suffered from symptoms consistent with manic-depressive illness, with which he was once diagnosed.

His mood symptoms are consistent with benefits for crisis leadership.

Obituaries are ignoring his psychiatric struggles, reflecting stigma.

The media entrepreneur Ted Turner died this month at age 87. The obituaries barely mention, or completely ignore, that Turner was diagnosed with bipolar illness and treated with lithium. Michael Smerconish finally made that point on his CNN show, something almost all other obituaries ignored.

That's what we don't want to admit as a culture: that effective leaders often have manic-depressive illness. Instead we want to view all mental illnesses as bad, purely bad, nothing but bad — hence the stigma against them. We don't admit that there are positive qualities to some mental illnesses, especially MDI. Mania produces creativity and resilience to stress; depression produces empathy and makes one more realistic. These are the traits of great crisis leaders, which makes them more effective than normally mentally healthy leaders, who are less creative, resilient, empathic, and realistic. I examine these ideas in detail in A First-Rate Madness.

About 15 years ago, when I published that book, I wanted to choose a business entrepreneur to show how the benefits of manic and depressive traits for leadership extended beyond politics into the business world. I chose Turner because he had been diagnosed and treated for bipolar illness.

Turner........

© Psychology Today