Do We Need to be Crazy to be Creative?
This mythology of madness as a fuel for creativity continues to affect how we think of artists – and ourselves as creative people.
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Do We Need to be Crazy to be Creative? By Douglas Eby “Creativity is a divine madness… a gift from the gods.” Plato This mythology of madness as a fuel for creativity continues to affect how we think of artists – and ourselves as creative people. Psychiatrist and creativity author Albert Rothenberg MD commented that “Deviant behavior, whether in the form of eccentricity or worse, is not only associated with persons of genius or high-level creativity, but it is frequently expected of them.” That is one of the dangers of this mythology: that we may consider ourselves “not crazy enough” to be creative, or that our mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression should be endured, in order to “protect” our creative power. Musician Sting admits he bought in to the myth for a long time: “Do I have to be in pain to write? I thought so, as most of my contemporaries did; you had to be the struggling artist, the tortured, painful, poetic wreck. “I tried that for a while, and to a certain extent that was successful. I was ‘The King of Pain’ after all. "I only know that people who are getting into this archetype of the tortured poet end up really torturing themselves to death.” But are creative people more likely to have mental health issues? Creativity researcher Dean Keith Simonton, PhD notes, “Few creative individuals can be considered truly mentally ill. Indeed, outright disorder usually inhibits rather than helps creative expression. Furthermore, a
large proportion of creators exhibit no symptoms, at least not to any measurable degree.” But Professor Steven James Bartlett, referring to the work of psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison, writes: “There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that, compared to ‘normal’ individuals, artists, writers, and creative people in general, are both psychologically ‘sicker’ – that is, they score higher on a wide variety of measures of psychopathology – and psychologically healthier (for example, they show quite elevated scores on measures of self-confidence and ego strength). (From his paper The Abnormal Psychology of Creativity and the Pathology of Normality.) In his book Creativity for Life, psychologist and creativity coach Eric Maisel, PhD explains: "The individual with the childhood history, personality, identity, aspirations, and inner makeup of the artist almost certainly is at greater risk of going mad than the next person. "For whatever else it may be, madness is, in significant measure, a kind of intense acting-in, a departure from everyday reality to the battlefield of a stormy inner reality. "The artist, self-absorbed, intense, and thriving on her inner life, regularly lives closer to such a departure than do her less introverted, less imaginative and less agitated brothers and sisters." But others disagree. Psychologist Judith Schlesinger, for example, has declared the ‘mad genius’ myth to be “hogwash” without valid research support. Well, now that I have managed to introduce this topic with enough contradictory and confusing material, I will leave it for now with another comment by Eric Maisel, referring to creative expression. In our interview, he said “It serves us best to learn how to reduce or eliminate both depression and anxiety from our lives, as I do not hold them as useful in any way. I think that pain is overrated.”
~~~~ Further reading : Article: Creativity, the Arts, and Madness, By Maureen Neihart, Psy.D. Posts on my TalentDevelop site: Creativity and madness: The Abnormal Psychology of Creativity Madness and creativity: do we need to be crazy? ~~~
Get more articles like this (and other material) in the Developing Talent newsletter plus free pdf report "Being Sensitive and Creative" when you subscribe: http://talentdevelop.com/DevelopingTalentnewsletter.html Douglas Eby, M.A./Psychology, is a writer, researcher and online publisher on the psychology of creative expression and personal growth. He is author of the Talent Development Resources series of sites http://talentdevelop.com
large proportion of creators exhibit no symptoms, at least not to any measurable degree.” But Professor Steven James Bartlett, referring to the work of psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison, writes: “There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that, compared to ‘normal’ individuals, artists, writers, and creative people in general, are both psychologically ‘sicker’ – that is, they score higher on a wide variety of measures of psychopathology – and psychologically healthier (for example, they show quite elevated scores on measures of self-confidence and ego strength). (From his paper The Abnormal Psychology of Creativity and the Pathology of Normality.) In his book Creativity for Life, psychologist and creativity coach Eric Maisel, PhD explains: "The individual with the childhood history, personality, identity, aspirations, and inner makeup of the artist almost certainly is at greater risk of going mad than the next person. "For whatever else it may be, madness is, in significant measure, a kind of intense acting-in, a departure from everyday reality to the battlefield of a stormy inner reality. "The artist, self-absorbed, intense, and thriving on her inner life, regularly lives closer to such a departure than do her less introverted, less imaginative and less agitated brothers and sisters." But others disagree. Psychologist Judith Schlesinger, for example, has declared the ‘mad genius’ myth to be “hogwash” without valid research support. Well, now that I have managed to introduce this topic with enough contradictory and confusing material, I will leave it for now with another comment by Eric Maisel, referring to creative expression. In our interview, he said “It serves us best to learn how to reduce or eliminate both depression and anxiety from our lives, as I do not hold them as useful in any way. I think that pain is overrated.”
~~~~ Further reading : Article: Creativity, the Arts, and Madness, By Maureen Neihart, Psy.D. Posts on my TalentDevelop site: Creativity and madness: The Abnormal Psychology of Creativity Madness and creativity: do we need to be crazy? ~~~
Get more articles like this (and other material) in the Developing Talent newsletter plus free pdf report "Being Sensitive and Creative" when you subscribe: http://talentdevelop.com/DevelopingTalentnewsletter.html Douglas Eby, M.A./Psychology, is a writer, researcher and online publisher on the psychology of creative expression and personal growth. He is author of the Talent Development Resources series of sites http://talentdevelop.com
