What is creative expression vs monomania?

Question

My freinds and family, who happen to be in the mental health field, say I should be on medication or hospitalized, when ever I bring up any creative ideas or nominclatures. They said Ideas like mine are to disruptive to society. I think there threatend by the fact an Artificial Intellegent program could replace them and medications could be distributed from a vending machine.

Answer 1

Well, the ideas you're suggesting are merely creative and imaginative ones, filtered by what seems logically possible to you. I don't see anything wrong with your ideas, and other people have had similar ones without being diagnosed as monomaniac.

"Monomania" as a diagnosis would refer to the way in which you pursue your creative ideas or relay them to other people in conversation.

It would generally be an obsession with your idea, where it's all you talk about with others and what you focus your energy on to the detriment of other parts of your life (family, job, relationships, etc.) It would leave others feeling emotionally neglected.

I haven't seen how you interact with your friends and family, so I can't offer you my view on whether the diagnosis is accurate.

(Again, your ideas themselves are fine; it's how you pursue them and communicate them that would bring this sort of diagnosis.)

If your friends and family have seemed generally considerate of you in the past and have tried to give you space to pursue on your ideas, then I think you should give them more leeway. I would at least ask them to explain (in a nice way) in more detail why they think you might be monomaniac.

(The fact that some have a background in mental health gives them at least a little credibility.)

I would also ask how they feel about their relationship to you. Ask them what they want from you as a friend or family member, and ask if the way you pursue your ideas is disrupting that relationship.

You sound like an "ideas" guy who really likes to use his intellect, but other people have different needs that might not fall into that category. Your friends and family might need you to relate more on an emotional level with them (as human beings to spend time with) rather than focusing on your ideas all the time in those relationships.

Again, wish I could tell you more, but I'd need to observe you all together to get a better feel for it.

Answer 2

Monomania is having a fixation on a specific idea or emotion or a narrow range of one or the other. Being obsessive about an idea, urge or object which could lead to the persons mental or physical destruction.

Creative expression is putting forth unique ideas or emotions in a new way. It doesn't involve obsession over it.

Answer 3

Creative expressions are those reasonably accepted by the people and society you livein as a thoughtful idea whereas monomania is simply stupid expression

Answer 4

It goes along the same principal as this:

Poor = CRAZY

Rich = ECCENTRIC


You must be poor because you are not seen as creative...