Why did August Strindberg study alchemy and theosophy during the 1890s?

During the 1890s, August Strindberg experienced a period of significant personal turmoil, characterized by literary sterility, physical and emotional stress, and mental instability. His engagement with alchemy and the study of theosophy occurred during this time of crisis, which ultimately culminated in a religious conversion that he documented in his autobiographical work, Inferno. This period of intense experimentation and spiritual seeking served as a transformative phase that re-created him as a writer, leading to the creation of works such as the three-part drama To Damascus.1