Pierre Bergé was Yves Saint Laurent’s partner in business, and romantically. Recently, the co-founder of YSL spoke about his life with Laurent.

Like many highly creative people, Laurent suffered from depression.

“He was a manic-depressive, absolutely,” Bergé told one reporter. “He was manic-depressive, exactly what the word means, manic and depressive. This means periods when he did every sort of thing crazy with happiness, and then the next day, it was blackness. It was depression that drove him towards alcoholism, and afterwards a little towards drugs. Voilà.”

As Bergé explains, even huge creative achievements weren’t enough to lift Laurent’s spirits.

“Even with a wonderful collection, he was a very, very unhappy, unhappy guy,” he explained. “More than that. More than unhappy. Really. I just tried to help him from time to time. I never complained. Never. It’s an illness, nothing else. It is just an illness.”

Depression is rife within the world’s brightest luminaries. Think Alexander McQueen and his spiral towards suicide, Galliano and his alcoholism, rock-stars and their vices.

Perhaps, for these highly eccentric people prone to mania and depression, creative pursuits are an important way of venting overwhelming emotions.