Author of the article presents the phenomenon of "creative illness" through the prism of the views of the British psychiatrist Anthony Storr. The central issue of this article is the close relationship between genius and mental illness. The experience of "creative illness" was characteristic of many mystics, religious sect leaders and visionaries who created original philosophical and psychological concepts and made discoveries in the field of exact sciences. The author pays special attention to the crises of Freud and Jung, thanks (...) to which visionaries created ideas that changed our perception of man and his culture. Anthony Storr treats them not so much as scientists, but as inspirational gurus. (shrink)