Considering Henry Darger

It can go without saying that Henry Darger was without a doubt a very creative individual. But where did it all begin? It turns out his story begins simply at the beginning, where everything that could go wrong, did.

 Henry lived an interesting life filled with more turmoil than the typical person has to experience. Starting at a young age his mother passed away so his younger sister was forced to become an orphan, leaving Henry with his father. Unfortunately soon after, Henry's father grew ill and was admitted to a nursing home Henry was enrolled in The Mission of Our Ladies Home boarding school. Once Henry’s father passed away Henry was brought to an asylum for feeble minded children. He attempted to run away multiple times and was eventually successful and that’s when he moved back to Chicago at a mere age of 17.

Henry’s childhood showed that he had no other choice but to get through almost impossible obstacles not only at a young age but also by himself. If all your life you were told that you were crazy and treated separate from society at what point would start to believe that maybe you were? My view on Henry’s creative genius is that it stemmed from a mental illness. Throughout his stressful childhood he was forced into a schizotypal personality. According to PubMed Health a schizotypal personality disorder is a mental health condition in which a person has trouble with relationships and disturbances in thought patterns, appearance, and behavior. After looking at the later years of his life its obvious he preferred to stay closed away from the outside world due to the way he had been treated. Henry instead invested most of his time creating a new world where he could focus on things that were absent in his present life. His creations reflected many children, girls more specifically. In my opinion he did this be because he was deprived of a youth and even a female figure.

Henry’s 30,000 pages of work including “The Realms of the Unreal” is creative and unlike any other work seen before. It is important we focus on his work because it has potential to answer questions such as: where does creativity begin? It seems that many artists who were perceived as successful, lived troubled lives much like Henry did. Some examples are as follows: Michael Jackson, Albert Einstein, Vincent Van Gogh, etc. Can we consider Henry Darger in the same category and as influential as the people previously listed? In many ways, I can. Can you?