Kanye West has had some major meltdowns in public, and now a college professor at Washington University in St. Louis is looking to use his meltdowns as a case study for mental illness. Dr. Jeffrey McCune is posing the case study as a lecture titled "Name One Genius That Ain't Crazy: Kanye West and the Politics of Self-Diagnosis." The lecture is set to point out how West is both "crazy" and a "genius" at the same time.

McCune gave more information on the upcoming lecture, saying, "Ultimately what I’m getting at in this lecture is not just about Kanye, it’s also about the larger notion of crazy and how we utilize it." McCune is planning to use the lecture to argue how race can intensify the label of "crazy" as a mental illness opposed to the use of the word in reference to someone who is seen as an innovator.

McCune made it clear that his goal is to "give people permission to be enraged" and upset. He went on to say, "[I want to] Give people permission to have moments where they break. Give people permission to have moments where they experience depression. I want to give them permission to have those moments without being characterized as being some type of deviant figure in the community. I don’t want to take away that experience and call it crazy. It’s reasonable. And it must be addressed with love, compassion, care, generosity." McCune's lecture will take place at Washington University on April 12, 2017.

Source: complex.com