The life and music of Alexander Scriabin: megalomania revisited

Abstract

To shed more light on the relationship between the grandiosity of the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) and his creative output, and discuss its implications for psychopathology. Scriabin was a highly original composer, who brought innovations to the idiom of music. He firmly believed that music and philosophy were inseparable and that music was only a vehicle for expressing ideas and emotional states. As Scriabin was getting more preoccupied with mysticism and as he was developing a belief that his mission was to save the world through his art, his music became more esoteric. Over the last five years of his life, he composed relatively little, as he was working on a supergrandiose project that he never completed. Scriabin's grandiosity, which had delusional qualities, might have diminished his creativity towards the end of his life and contributed to his destructive fantasies. All along, his social façade was well preserved and he was not noted to exhibit overt psychotic behaviour, suggesting an encapsulated delusional megalomania. The implications of megalomania, especially in creative or otherwise influential individuals, are briefly discussed.