“Meanwhile, we owe the greatest goods to the madness that, admittedly, God sends us fleet. After all, that prophetess in Delphi and those priestesses in Dodona had already done much good to the people and the Hellenic states in a frenzy, and
when sober, little or nothing. Or let's take Sibyl and others the figures are possessed by a prophetic spirit; they have already made many predictions to many, and it is good happened. These are things so familiar and clear to everyone
that they are not worth dwelling on. But it's worth it state that the ancient Hellenes, who wrote Greek words, did not consider mania as something ugly or insulting. "
“(...) So, according to the evidence provided by our ancestors,
madness is a nobler thing than sober sense . . . madness comes from God, whereas sober sense is merely human.”
“There is also a third kind of madness, which is possession by the Muses, enters into a delicate and virgin soul,
and there inspiring frenzy, awakens lyric....But he, who, not being inspired and having no touch of madness in his soul, comes to the door and thinks he will get into the temple by the help of art--he, I say, and his poetry are not admitted;
the sane man is nowhere at all when he enters into rivalry with the madman.”
Plato, Phaedrus
“Why is it that all men who are outstanding in philosophy, poetry or the arts are melancholic?”
Aristotle, Problems…
“There
is no genius without a touch of madness.”
Seneca
“Men are so inevitably mad that not to be mad would be to give a mad twist to madness.”
Blaise Pascal
“You
don't have to be crazy to become a genius ... but sometimes it can help ...”
Simonton D.K. „Creativity in science: Chance, logic, genius and zeitgeist”
INTRODUCTION - SOME HISTORY
Views on the relationship between madness and creativity are derived from antiquity. As can be easily seen in the Plato quote above, divine frenzy or creative ecstasy, they were supposed to release special creative powers that allowed
to overcome limitations rational thinking. In the quote from Aristotle, we see a reflection on the problem linking "creative powers" to what we would today call mood disorders.
These issues were thought similarly in the
Middle Ages. A crazy man was considered to be haunted, "knowing". His incomprehensible behavior and speech were often considered a manifestation of secret knowledge, inaccessible to others. Then the attitude towards mentally ill people
changed dramatically, although in the Renaissance it was believed (after Aristotle) that the artist should to be melancholic, to be a good artist. However, "ordinary" madmen began to be considered inferior, "stupid", dangerous or
"possessed by the devil." It was due before them protect and isolate them.
The real renaissance of views positively valuing madness took place only in romanticism, along with the change of the artist's social status. “In Auerbach's opinion, one can speak of "Wise madness in the style of romantic irony", about
the wisdom resulting from madness, about madness, which opens up to the romantic protagonist "the view of things to which one is healthy he could never come to his senses ”3. Also, the romantic artist himself is often considered such
a madman he considered.
At the end of the 19th century, the famous work of the psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso, "Genius and madness", was published. His position, however, was much more moderate. "Indeed, in a turbulent and
the passionate course of the life of geniuses and deranged people are common moments. They are common exaltation, coupled with sensitivity and punctuated by states of weariness, exhaustion, which are hers the consequence, the originality
of artistic works and discoveries (...), great absent-mindedness, strong tendency to suicide, and finally quite often - alcoholism and enormous vanity. Among the brilliant people there were those who later became insane, and among
the insane who showed glimpses of genius under the influence of illness, but if you want to from this to conclude that all genius men must be insane, that is, the data is distorted and repeats the misconceptions of savages who glorified
as inspired by God all mentally ill people. A genius is aware of his strength, he appreciates himself and does not descend to intimate fraternity with everyone, but he does not have the pride that seizes sick minds and goes beyond
the limits of truth probability. " In this quotation, it is easy to spot a reference to the Aristotelian view that links affective disorders with creativity, although Lombroso himself in the above-quoted fragment was probably not very
clearly aware of it. He tied up because a genius rather with neurodegenerative disorders (physical and mental).
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MENTAL DISORDERS AND CREATIVITY
- CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES
Contemporary approach to the relationship between mental disorders and creativity is more moderate than in romanticism. Genius is not necessarily associated with insanity, although many studies indicate a relationship.
Broadly
speaking, this research can be grouped into three strands:
I. Historiometric and biographical research (concerning the authors of past epochs)
II. Prospective research (on contemporary
authors and based on diagnoses clinical).
III. Psychometric tests (concerning the group of highly creative people who are tested recognized diagnostic methods).
In the first approach, historical
data (biographies of recognized authors) are subjected to objective, often even quantitative, analyzes. Representatives of this approach include E.A. Raskin, Nancy Andreasen and Kay Redfied Jamison. What are the conclusions of these
studies?
1. "The level and severity of psychopathological symptoms seem to be higher among outstanding authors than in the general population." Despite the differences in methodology, we can assume that
the probability of some mental disorders among authors is approximately twice as high as in the general population.
2. The severity of psychopathology is directly proportional to the level of eminence
and creativity of the creator.
3. The type and severity of symptoms seems to be influenced by the field of creative activity of the creator (e.g. psychopathology affects artists more than science creators).
The research of Ludwig 7 shows that mental disorders are affected much more often creators of art rather than science - 87% of outstanding poets, compared to only 28% of outstanding scientists, experience mental disorders. In the latter
case, the percentage is similar to that of the general population.
4. The families of eminent authors also seem to be burdened with disorders in the field of psychopathology. In the case of schizophrenia,
the son, uncle and granddaughter of Bertrand Russell, son of Albert Einstein, daughter of James Joyce, two sons of John Nash, son of James D. Watson suffered from the disease.
In the second approach, living creators are tested with clinical tests and the diagnoses are based on the currently valid classification of diseases. However, the most interesting research was done in the scope of the current III. Psychometric
tools are used here, which on the one hand measure various personality traits in combination with others, which measure creativity. Subjects surviving creators are compared with each other or the inventors are compared with a control
group selected from the rest of the population. There are also attempts to study the relationship between the genetic incidence of mental illness and creativity. Among others, a study conducted in the Icelandic population (medical
and genetic data of 86,000 inhabitants) showed that people belonging to artistic associations were 17% more likely to develop schizophrenia and bipolar disorder than those who work in less creative jobs. Similar Swedish and Dutch studies
gave an even higher result - 25%. However, the question of the existence of these dependencies is a controversial matter. Harvard professor of psychiatry Albert Rothenberg, who examined 45 Nobel Prize winners, found no sign of mental
illness in any of them. In this connection, he also noticed that belonging to artistic unions or working in the cultural sector does not necessarily have to be associated with creativity, but increased the incidence of mental illness
may be related to the fact that people prone to mental illness choose such occupations.
The results of all studies on the relationship between creativity and mental disorders can be summarized as follows. Creative
individuals achieve elevated scores in several dimensions related to psychopathology:
1) Creativity is positively correlated with affective disorders (especially bipolar disorder). It has been reported
in this case (as in the next one, see below) that the frequency of these disorders is higher among first-degree relatives of people suffering from bipolar disorder and cyclothymia, but not in the same group10. However, other studies
indicate that it is greater both among sick people and those closely related to them. It is worth noting that there is, on the other hand, a negative relationship between disease duration and creativity (the longer the disease lasts,
the less creativity) 12. In turn, research conducted in Sweden showed that among 700,000 sixteen-year-olds, those who had the highest scores on intelligence tests had a 4 times greater chance of developing bipolar disorder. Other studies
have found that bipolar people recovering from depression have the most creative tendencies. Also, the state of hypomania promotes creativity - patients in this state are able to generate 3 times more associations at the same time
than people without any mental disorders.
2) Creativity is positively correlated with psychoticism. Interesting research results and considerations were presented here by Hans Eysenck
a) Creativity is related to the weakening of latent inhibition (it concerns the elimination by the brain of stimuli considered to be insignificant). It is also related to independence and nonconformity. “Additionally, elevated scores
in psychoticism are associated with the ability to divide attention, lowered negative prejudice and latent inhibition, thus allowing the emergence of ideas that would normally be filtered during information processing "
b) Elevated scores on several scales related to psychoticism, however, usually do not mean actual psychopathology. It is worth noting, however, that the higher scores on these scales concern, above all, the creators considered to be more
outstanding. However, this does not change the fact that also here they usually do not reach the real psychotic level. Eysenck's motivation is that at the same time the creators show increased scores on the ego level and self-sufficiency
scale. So they seem to have considerable control over their symptoms, for example controlling strange thoughts and delusions rather than letting them control them. Intelligence also seems to play a role in these processes, which, although
in terms of its higher levels, is not correlated with creativity, it must have a certain the minimum level (the threshold is 120 IQ) to enable information processing, "so as to select, develop and improve original ideas into creative
works"
SUMMARY
Taken together, these results suggest that there is a strong link between psychopathological symptoms and creativity, although they do not suggest that genius and madness are unequivocally related. “In fact, the full sychopathological
picture of psychosis from the schizophrenic circle inhibits creative expression rather than helps it, while from the affective circle (especially hypomania and cyclothymia), it can be a factor supporting creativity, especially in literary
and artistic terms. Overall, it can be said that "creativity requires going beyond the usual framework, to explore new, unconventional and even bizarre possibilities, to be open to unexpected events and random results, to imagine the
unconvincing, to consider the unlikely." Among the competences of the creator, the complex configuration of features, the so-called "Creativity cluster": divisive attention, divergent thinking (the ability to create alternative solutions
to a problem), openness to experience, independence and nonconformity. Creativity and psychopathology share this configuration of traits.
