Andy Warhol Was a Hoarder

“With keen insight and a writerly flair, Claudia Kalb, one of the nation's preeminent science journalists, has written a book that is at once profound and a great deal of fun. She takes us on an engrossing and original journey into the minds (and, yes, the madnesses) of some of history's most intriguing figures. Kalb explores nothing less than the mysteries of genius and individuality.”
—J
ON
M
EACHAM
, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of
American Lion

“A brilliant and fascinating journey into the perils that so often accompany genius. Spellbinding.”
—E
DWARD
H
ALLOWELL
, M.D., psychiatrist and co-author of the national bestseller
Driven to Distraction

“With a sharp eye but forgiving, deep-seated sense of humanity, Claudia Kalb takes us into the netherworld where emotions make (and break) extraordinary figures, from Marilyn Monroe to Albert Einstein. Compelling, intriguing, surprising, and fun.”
—E
VAN
T
HOMAS
, author of
Being Nixon

“Claudia Kalb uses insights about the great men and women of history to animate today's most gripping mental health headlines. A wonderful book.”
—R
OBIN
M
ARANTZ
H
ENIG
,
New York Times Magazine
contributing writer

Published by the National Geographic Society
1145 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036

Copyright © 2016 Claudia Kalb. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kalb, Claudia.
   Andy Warhol was a hoarder : inside the minds of history's great personalities / Claudia Kalb. – 1st Edition.
         pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-4262-1466-0 (hardback)
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4262-1467-7
1. Fame--Psychological aspects. 2. Celebrities--Psychology--Biography. I. Title.
BJ1470.5.K35 2016
616.890092'2--dc23

2015024370

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Cover and Interior Illustrations: Allison Bruns

15/QGF-CML/1

v3.1

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction

Marilyn Monroe

Howard Hughes

Andy Warhol

Princess Diana

Abraham Lincoln

Christine Jorgensen

Frank Lloyd Wright

Betty Ford

Charles Darwin

George Gershwin

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Albert Einstein

Afterword

Sources and Notes

Acknowledgments

About the Author

W
HY DID
A
NDY
W
ARHOL FILL
hundreds of boxes with old postcards, medical bills, and pizza crust? What made Marilyn Monroe overdose on sedatives? Why did Charles Darwin suffer from stomachaches, and Howard Hughes insist on turning doorknobs with Kleenex? These are some of the questions that launched this book: a journey into the wonder and anguish of the mind as told through the lives of 12 celebrated figures who reshaped the world. Albert Einstein's theory of relativity transformed our understanding of time and space. Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves. George Gershwin's “Summertime” intoxicated the soul. Almost all of these characters were enormously accomplished in science, business, politics, or the arts—but every one of them also exhibited behaviors associated with a mental health condition like autism, depression, anxiety, addiction, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

In many ways, historical figures are no saner or zanier than the rest of us. While their public lives have been fodder for books, movies, and splashy headlines, their psyches reveal characteristics that many of us will recognize in our spouses, children, friends—even ourselves. We all craft public personas and tussle with internal
dramas. Rich or poor, musician or accountant, boomer or millennial, most of us have
something
going on—a compulsion to line up pencils, a knack for blowing up friendships, an ego that jeopardizes a promotion, a powerlessness over potato chips. I, for one, have been known to triple-check the stove before leaving the house, hang on to old magazines and catalogs, and bawl over sappy commercials. But where is the line between “normal” behavior and a psychological problem? When is shyness a personality trait, and when is it social anxiety disorder? What makes yanking on your hair trichotillomania rather than just a bad habit? At what point do you treat sadness with Prozac?

Our understanding of mental health has evolved dramatically from the days when our ancestors drilled holes in one another's brains to excise supernatural possession by demons. Over the centuries, people with psychological ailments have endured a rash of treatments, from leeches to electroshock therapy. Freud, with his theories of unconscious repression, launched the “talking cure” in the first half of the 20th century; then came the cascade of psychotropic drugs, from the tranquilizer Miltown in the 1950s to Prozac in the 1980s. Today, the brain and the mind are viewed as inextricably linked, and scientists are pushing to pinpoint the biological blueprints of mental health conditions. Intriguing findings are emerging: Activity in a specific area of the brain can predict if a patient with depression will do better with an antidepressant or talk therapy; people with schizophrenia have less brain tissue in the earliest stages of the illness; low levels of oxytocin, a hormone linked to social behavior, have been linked to higher levels of anxiety.

With each new discovery, however, comes the daunting reality that there is so much more to learn. The human brain is infinitely complex and unpredictable—a breathtaking mass of
tissue comprising some 100 billion neurons and immeasurable capacity. That one organ can power our most basic needs (breathing, eating, walking), foster our intellect,
and
preside over random thoughts and amorphous feelings is as impossible to fathom as the breadth of the universe. Doctors know far more about the mechanisms underlying heart disease or diabetes than they do about mental disorders, and diagnostic tools are more precise for most physical ailments. X-rays pick up bone breaks; thermometers measure fever; blood tests detect infection. The brain is different. While you can image it for tumors and blood clots, you cannot scan it for bipolar or borderline personality disorders. And even if you could, would you be able to “see” these conditions with any clarity? Symptoms crisscross and overlap. Boundaries blur. Depression and anxiety often coexist with each other and with other conditions, including addiction, autism, and eating disorders. The notion that mental disorders are distinct entities has begun to change. Researchers recently discovered, for example, that a group of the same genetic variations is associated with five seemingly different conditions: autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia.