What's the connection between enhanced creativity/productivity and mental illness?

Question

Think Robin Williams (I adore him), bipolars, and so on.

Answer 1

The occurrence of mood disorders among creative people is six times that of the general population. So too the rates of alcohol and drug abuse, depression and suicide also increase.

Bipolar illness is common among creative types (as well as successful business and political leaders). The manic highs create states of euphoria and a flood of ideas and energy. However, the manic state can reach a dangerous high were the person suffers psychosis and must be hospitalized.

There are subdivisions of Bipolar illness, called Bipolar II and III and so on. Bipolar II is considered by some a "beneficial" illness because its manic states do not get out of control. Instead the person remains quite lucid and productive. However, it is often overlooked that this subtype also suffers greater and more frequent depression.

Medicating Bipolar people can be difficult. Some creative people fear that mood stablizers like Lithium (the classic drug for this condition) will obstruct their creativity. As well, creative people experience highs and grandiosity and deny that their behavior is becoming problematic. Usually, a Bipolar must crash and hit rock bottom before they seek help.


Two books that address creativity and mental illness:

Kay Jamison's Touched by Fire
Ronald Fieve's Moodswing

Answer 2

The truth is that the enhanced creativity actually is not enhanced, but the person with the disorder perceives that it is. The act of taking medication ofr the disorder is often the key trigger for most individuals with specific ailments. To be honest the usual reaction is that when a person has been give a diagnoses and prescribed medication they will take it for a shorter period of time feeling that they are better and stop taking it or they feel that the medication causes a blocking of the creativity but that is not the case. The individual is desperate to get the overall euphoria and creative euphoria back so they stop their medication. In some case they refuse medication or agree to take a milder dose as long as they feel still in control of their creative center. The connection is one that is for the most part a heightened perspective from the patients view point.
I hope that helps!

Answer 3

In Robin's case (I love him too) the connection was fame and the trappings that come with it. He started doing drugs after he became famous as Mork. Lots of very talented actors, comedians, writers, artists, etc. become addicted after they are introduced to the Hollywood lifestyle.

For other creative people, it's hard to say. I don't think we understand the brain very well at all, and until we do we won't be able to understand creativity. I have a sister who is a musical savant. She can hear music and play it. It's uncanny. She has been doing this since she was four. She is also a mentally-ill drug addict. She never experienced fame, so that doesn't explain it. But the creativity was there long before the signs of mental illness or the drug use. So I don't know. I wish I did, maybe I could help her.

Answer 4

The same heuristic exists in the fine arts and the hard sciences: genius and madness are different sides of the same razors edge.