Is Mental Illness Related to Above-Average Creativity?
Okay, I must be really starving for blog topics if I am posting my school papers as blogs. Just finished this little ditty below…
Points of interest not included in the paper:
The highest correlation between mental illness and high creativity was found in poets.
The article I reference in footnote #4 was utter bullshit. It falsely stated that symptoms described in the DSM-IV were considered standalone illnesses which are going to be used by Obama and his minions to use mental health issues to imprison people for owning guns. No one is trying to say that free thinking and creativity are mental illnesses.
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The point of this paper is to examine how mental illness is related to higher-creativity. This is not an issue that can be easily presented in terms of “pros” and “cons”, i.e., whether or not there is a relationship. The sources I have found seem to indicate to all agree that the two are related [1] [2] [3]. Higher levels of creativity are found more frequently in people who have also been diagnosed with mental health issues when compared to those who have not, and possessing greater creative potential correlates to more susceptibility to mental illness. Several studies have documented these relationships.
What is not as clear is if the relationship is causal or just corollary. Does mental illness facilitate creativity? Does creativity trigger mental illness? Do these two aspects of the mind exist independently of one another and those who have a predisposition for one are simply more likely to also have a predisposition for the other? These are the issues where the experts disagree.
In addition, the existence of higher creativity has been incorporated into diagnostic criteria for certain conditions in the DSM-IV. Critics of the manual and those who hold the opinion that mental illness is being over-diagnosed use this stated correlation as evidence of the pathologization of personality traits. As these critics state, if Mozart were born today, “he would be diagnosed with ADD and medicated into a barren normality.”[4]
Of the research I reviewed, I found that of Megatulski to be most compelling. She cited studies which examined the genetic pre-disposition for susceptibility to bipolar disorder with the hypothesized existence of a genetic origin of higher creativity. These studies showed that not only was there a correlation between bipolar disorder and creativity, but also that the close relatives of those with bipolar disorder (who were not exhibiting symptoms of mental illness themselves, but were genetically very similar) scored higher in measurements of creative disposition when compared to a control group. This genetic factor makes the question of causality moot. Mental illness does allow for creativity nor does creativity cause mental illness. Megatulski notes: “The coexistence of creativity accompanied by manic depression, whether expressed in bipolar patients or not expressed in their predisposed family members, suggests that a third factor, yet unidentified, may be orchestrating the expression of the two.”
Byrd proposes one such orchestrating factor called Latent Inhibition (LI), defined as “the capacity to screen from conscious awareness stimuli previously experienced as irrelevant”. High levels of LI inversely correlates to creativity. We have also found that low levels of LI indicates a greater susceptibility to mental illness. I might disagree with Byrd in regards to the significance of conscious awareness in it’s role in the creative process, I would agree that the act of releasing inhibitions is critical in the creative process for most people. If those with low levels of LI (which itself may be either genetically determined or conditioned in human development) are both better artists, poets and creators as well as being more prone to mental illness, here we find a possible explanation for the link between the two.
In future career as a counselor, I will undoubtedly encounter co-occurring disorders amongst my clients. This brief examination of the connection between creativity and mental illness in some ways de-stigmatizes the latter. Although I will not have the credentials or qualifications to specifically treat the sometimes debilitating symptoms of mental illness, what I will be able to help clients with is how they themselves view their own conditions. I can imagine talking to client and noting that he or she has bipolar disorder, depression or ADHD. What then does that mean? Is it a cursed affliction or is an expression of a different way of thinking that actually has some positive benefits as well? Taking the latter point of view would undoubtedly help some clients see their circumstances more positively and improve their quality of life.
This is an ‘ahhhhhh!’ moment. Self diagnosis in blog form. Well done, Joko—to white paper your illness to explain how you’ve reached this low point in your life is catharitic, is it not? You are the most creative and artistic person on this website and I think everyone would agree to that assessment.
I think, therefor I am…I’m the most creative genius on FriendBurst, therefor the most mentally ill… :groovy:
Well done. I can buy what your selling here. Poets, songwriters, uke players—all creative, all mentally ill…it’s the depth of talent and creativeness that defines how sick we are.
I find your argument valid!
Good blog, brave man. :groovy:
Your Post made me think of a friend, from years back who went undiagnosed, because he ahd a plethora of several disorders, one masking the other, and at times they over lapped.
He was intelligent beyond any imagination, but he also had a dark side, one which few ever saw………
I am not sure if dustup is teasing you or not, but I have always found you to be a mellow person, for the most part, and well grounded…
I do agree with the examples you presented here and when we look back at some of the most brilliant minds through History, along with that was a shade or deep hue of some type or more then one type of mental disorder.
Interesting read- wish you would share more of your papers- or are you allowed to?
I don’t know whether creativity is higher amongst people with mental illness in general, because mental illness can most often have the opposite effect, of stifling creativity and everything positive, or maybe it’s the drugs that are given to patients. But certainly people with “bi-polar disorder” are well-known to be among the most highly creative people, especially if they can find a way to control and live with their condition that doesn’t involve drugs which suppress their creativity.
I subscribe to Erich Fromm’s observations. The DSM-IV (and now V in progress) is still based on the principles of Relativism, which believes that society must be the standard, and if the individual is deviant from this standard, then the individual is defective. It’s an old frame of reference, and it’s still politically motivated.
For instance the Anonymous Alcoholics lobbied to have “alcoholism” put into the DSM-IV as a “mental and spiritual disease” purely through political pressure. In the meantime, (at least in Europe) alcohol abuse is being considered as an extreme symtom of over-excessive stress problems; an expression of neurotic self-destructive behaviour, and no longer as a “mental and spiritual disease”.
Erich Fromm suggested with his axiom “The deviant are normal; it’s the normal who are deviant”, that individuals are formed by society, and depending how they react and interact in society this can determine their state of mental health. He called this “Normative Humanism”.
He went on to claim that a person suffers a defect, only when they are missing a character component, which is considered essentially virtuous human nature by society. If society were to consider spontanity as a normal human virtue everyone should strive for, any normal human would begin to suffer a neurotic disturbance, if they lack the capability to be spontaneous.
Fromm viewed creativity as a healty outlet for normal neurotic disturbances for people who lacked natural talents society deemed virutous. It wasn’t until the late 20th century when neurotic disturbances caused by inherent incapabilities to live up to social expectations, suddenly became “diseases” which required medication. I’m certain Fromm would have considered this trend of mass medication a dangerous trend álà “Brave New World”.
Dali was definitely mad and definitely intelligent and definitely talented. Its difficult issue because so much of it is based on hypotheses that are almost impossible to prove outright and yet easy to challenge but its an interesting topic all the same. I am interested in this stuff but dont really have any opinions to offer
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It may seem to the “normal” person that the highly creative and/or intelligent are crazy, simply because they do not fit in or are beyond the range of the “norm”…least that’s what the voices in my head tell me….
RC
*smiling* I know a little about this topic. But my experience had been with Manic Depression people who are clean freaks ~ so their creative energy was put to task living with me LMAO on both accounts (my Mother & Spouse, yes I married my mother *sigh*) both abused alcohol and later in life were diagnosed with Manic Depression. My Mother uses her affliction as an excuse to behave badly, where my husband is a model to emulate insofar as treatment goes thank God!!! I doubt I woulda stayed as long as I have with him had he not chosen to work on himself!!! we’ve been together for 32 years………..
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Sort of.
Off topic. Glad to see you are not in jail.
“No one is trying to say that free thinking and creativity are mental illnesses.”
Of course, no one would ever be so ham-fisted as to suggest doing that, but plenty of children are having their brains damaged by tame state psychiatrists, who will prescribe any drug a public school teacher “recommends” (despite the fact that the FDA has not approved nearly all psychotropic medications for use in people under age 18, and in spite of the fact the FDA has explicitly stated that such drugs may be dangerous to developing brains, these drugs are routinely dispensed to children, irrespective of such unenforced FDA regulatory directives). And plenty of these recommendations (not all, and almost certainly not most or even necessarily all that many, but a statistically significant number all the same) are being “recommended” precisely due to the exhibition of behavioral traits that are the result of not a mental psychosis or neurosis, but rather an independent and free spirit (which often leads to conflict in the pseudo-prisons we call “schools”). I’m not really clear how anyone who’s looked into the matter (as I have done), could possibly conclude otherwise.
I make a living on my talent and yes I do have mental illness and I learned to except it and use it to my advantage! I believe your blog is correct….people who are creative, dreamers, freethinkers that think outside the box not conforming to the machines codes of living are always judged and called mental! Also I think its do to IQ …if they do something miraculous like Einstein for example then they are called eccentric!
My mother(who was in and out of mental institutions most of my childhood) always said “I wish I was stupid then I could enjoy life with no worries!”
Enjoyed your blog…later 😉
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My oldest granddaughter has been diagnosed with ADHD and epilepsy. She is very artistically inclined. She is also very computer literate. One thing though that has been determined is that the medication that she takes for ADHD can cause seizures and the medication that she takes for epilepsy can enhance her behavior disorder. It appears to be a no win situation.
Each one of us is supposed to favor one side of our brain more than the other. If the creative side is favored THAT much more, than perhaps it could be physically considered a type of mental disorder for the mere fact that the brain is not in a proper balance. Just a thought.
Pics unrelated:
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I don’t know. They’ve got a mental illness label for every kind of personality type. Something fishy about it all. If you’re energetic, you’re hyperactive. If you’re lethargic, your depressed. If you’re smart, you’re socially inept (do you think maybe the reason for that might be that the higher the I.Q. the smaller the percentage of people with your I.Q.? For instance, an I.Q. above 135 exists in only 3% of the population. That means that 97% of the population can’t identify with you or understand your thinking. Are you therefore going to have a lot in common with most people? Do you think then that the mainstream population would deal with that problem with another label for another illness?)
I think this is a conspiracy to take our guns away from us. If we can all be diagnosed with a disease, we’re all dangerous and therefore need our Pitbulls, German Shepherds and guns taken away from us. Yeah? Ok, maybe not. But it does kinda sound feasible.
http://jimmorrisonspoetry.blogspot.com/
Projection anybody?:
Joko, I haven’t read any of the comments. my take on the reality called life . . is that every cell of our being is preprogrammed from within. . why wouldn’t the sum of this being, who dreamt itself in matter in 9 months time . as in fast forwarding itself through the billions of years of the universe winding this present thorugh all that has materialized itself in matter.
when conception happens, we have two strands of consciousness reuniting and all which ever transpire tween them. or, between the respective blueprint of the universe’s crative reality for us.
by now, and particularly within the last 60 ears or so . . the way electrical gadgets and operations exploded on and about the face of earth and with it the knowledge of the universe. .
with each one of us a cosmic update. picking up on the latest. . .where the universe has come to l. top it, with our have had our thoughts and views concreted about our sense of self. . so youth seems little by upstarts to the status quo
the more we suppress that through schooling them . It takes the brilliance of youth and dumifies their minds with the do as told or else. flunk and be ship to jail and travel through the penitentary turnstile .
ah,
the more we take money, science, academics religion and politics for real. and grand them status over and above our inner sense abilityes . . and the universal way of providing us with a constant stream of insights and answers through which we may live as the universe does. . instantly, in the hear and now, continuously flowing with the hear and now. to tender and treat all of life as mama does her new baby. . sadly, we have got further and further away from this mode of operations . . to where the meaning of life set in. The difference between mama handing baby a rattle
and daddy sending junior to basic training for dismissal of all you have learned in kindergarten if you mama didn’t already practice Sandbox Philosophy 101. call them in for a treat. never ever ever ever dwell on what stop ya short, safe for a fix. and that never never never ever with a fight.
and i know. . one can never speak of generalities, so I only speak for myself.
because I can only speak of my own expeience . . depression is like the emotional chills . .tearing through the ever so many ways your spirit was interrupted from living its dream. as in the thoughts and insights . . or the music you would have naturally followed up on. . however, with every generation we have moved further away from nature, and with it, paying the price with our health, and particularly mental health. for once you are trained to lost your spontaneity , flexability and adaptability curiousity and enthusiam
uhm
FACES FLEXability AdaptAbility Curiousity Enthuesiam Spontaneity
while the fever is the creativity to have it surface
I think that applies to some but not all, I did not find anything written about any of these creative geniuses suffer mental illness.
Jules Verne, LEONARDO da Vinci, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Alva Edison.
And these are just and example if you give me more time I`ll bring you more examples. :entertained:
self medicating to most