Pessoa dealt with several major depressions during his lifetime and was very aware of them. If anything he wallowed in his depressions. This is all documented. I love his books so I'm biased, but this is too much of a dismissive comment about a writer with a great body of work. If anything I think his struggles improved his writing which can help people deal with their own depressive moods, even if it prevented him from leading a happy life himself.

I did not mean to dismiss him, sorry if it seemed that way.

I enjoyed some of his works. You can admire his work but not follow his lifestyle, that's I think relevant for many artists.

It felt a dismissive comment for me too, but I think the main point of GP is that you are wrong about Pessoa being ”in denial” of his depression.

Most famous artists of the past lived lifestyles that would not meet the approval of our present-day corporate overlords.

Possibly with the exception of commercially-minded artists like Bouguereau, a 19th century French painter who spent his considerable talent on churning out endless canvases of cute baby angels. He is supposed to have said: “I lose 100 francs every time I have to stop painting to take a piss.” — Clearly a model of contemporary productivity.

Whichever mental illness he had didn't get better by drowning in absinthe.

He is certainly not the only artist who had a not so healthy lifestyle :-)