“Madness” and creativity have been linked for centuries. And while some scientific studies of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in artists have helped shaped this narrative, the connection between the two might not be as strong as some researchers suggest
All I know is that there has got to be some link between Mania and Creativity.
When I was experiencing Mania on almost an everyday basis in the past - my Creativity levels were sky high!
Now that I am more stable, my Creativity levels have dropped considerably
The difference between us writing or producing art and the guy down the street who does the same, is that we are touched with fire. It’s not a myth, our neurons are all fired up. Combine that with fire in the belly, and you get genius at times, there needs to be a margin of failing. Vincent Van Gogh started out being an average artist, and could of remained so, if it wasn’t for his enormous heart and cindered mind.
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I think if true this is only true up to a point ie the disorganisation that comes with extreme/ psychotic mania would work against the creative process. IMO the greatest likelihood for increased creativity in bipolar is to be found at the hypomanic level.
In terms of creativity and psychosis/psychotic like thinking in general I am not sure what to think. The evidence is contradictory.
However my own personal experience is that I was more creative ( wrote quite a lot of stuff for my own pleasure) when I was in a more acute mental state (more likely to be seen as having psychosis/psychotic like thinking) than in my current chronic stage where acute symptoms are less pronounced.
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I think that there is truth to highly intelligent people who have psychosis being a real phenomenon, possibly a clinically distinct group of people- some sixth subtype of schizophrenia, perhaps.
These people with letters after their names think so too
http://www.europsy-journal.com/article/S0924-9338(15)00072-3/abstract
Yep people with letters after their names a really smart …at least in my experience.
I am inclined to respond ofcourse it is a myth. Here I think we have an example of a wrong question being researched, or at least not a very interesting one to me. For I don’t really think people are making a claim of fact when they are linking the mad to the genius. Rather, I think it is more like an aesthetic statement. Like comparing two works of art in an aesthetic way. There seems to be something charming about this link. I would be interested in why this is so. What is interesting is why this myth is pervasive - for it has been around for centuries. There is something appealing to it - and not just for the mentally ill who may be motivated to endorse it in order to feel better about themselves. It is appealing to the general public. I would be interested in why this stereotype functions among them.
Yeah , the genius wrought by serious MI is really non existant. Its not my experience or is it consistant with my observations. It just doesn’t stack up
Genius can be associated with eccentricity but people mistake that for madness.
I think there may be a case for associating creativity with mild psychotic like thinking such as would be found in people defined as schizotypal but once you get to full blown psychosis that’s a different matter.