It is a complete fallacy that great works come from pain and suffering, coercion or torture.
Why?
Because pain and suffering is not inspiration.
Are you able to concentrate better with a headache?
What about being able to concentrate during extreme headaches for prolonged periods of time?
Has inspiration ever come to you during those times of pain and suffering?
For example, In the last ten years, every intellectual work I ever completed, the inspiration came from Elizabeth, my muse, or positive sources;
And the most of the inspiration came to my person over ten years ago;
It just takes awhile to finish working on my intellectual property which was why it was completed during these ten years and not that very second;
And it was completed during the pauses of pain and suffering when I could concentrate, because you cannot concentrate during times of debilitating trauma and stress or pain and suffering.
In business, the greater the morale, the higher the productivity; not the greater the pain and suffering, the higher the productivity.
Never during traumatic stress, especially prolonged, does it help soldiers or victims be more productive, because it only leads to PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder.
It is only during the pauses or after PTSD is there the ability to concentrate and receive inspiration.
Yes, one can write about hardships, but after one has lived through them, not in the midsts of struggling to survive*.
According to Maslow*, you reach the heightened ability to concentrate or self-actualize after certain basic needs are met.
No needs are met through pain and suffering and what is recognized is the pain and what if blocked by suffering is the inspiration.
*See Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation"