One classic example would be Marcel Proust. Another would be Soren Kirdegaard. Proust saw suffering and ones response to it as essential in determing both truth and beauty. He wrote his "Rembrance of Things Past" from the sick bed over a period of 14 years. He failed at all major life tasks including love and work, was indordinately attached to his mother, never really supported himself and his homosexuality was marred by an absence of any real (but many imagined) depth or committment. In spite of it all, he remains perhaps the greatest author of the 20th century.
Kierkegaard had an unrequited love, never married, was so depressed and full of self-hatred he sometimes couldn't function, yet he wrote the greatest defence of Christianity and faith by simply pursuing his thesis that there was a "leap of faith" requirement for the religious experience.
I was particularly interested in the Freud quotes which were apt. It is unfortunate Dr. Slater did not mention the self-esteem cult was popularized in the US by Alfred Adler and Rudolph Dreikurs. The latter I knew, and while a great lecturer and persuasive man, he lacked an ineffable something which made one wary.
Thanks Ultima Thule.
Do you recall a recent study which showed that the higher the participants rated their ability to perform a task, the worse they did on it, and vice versa?