This book is about 89 outstanding women. What unites these personalities, including writers and poets, actresses and artists, politicians and statesmen, revolutionaries, warriors, saints? This question is asked by a psychiatrist. And not by chance. The topic of norms and pathologies of a creative personality - mainly in the mental sphere - has always excited minds. Based on his own, very specific pathographic material (case histories and diagnostic reports), the author comprehends these issues in their interrelation. Such an analysis allows us to see what role certain mental disorders played in the creative process, how they affected the works, dispelling the myth about the unconditionally negative impact of mental illness.