Why do so many brilliant musicians/artists seem to be nuts?

Question

Last night I watched Shine with Geoffry Rush and it got me thinking. Why do there seem to be so many brilliant musicians and artists who are at least a little bit nuts.

Are their brains wired in some way that makes art or music so natural but makes it difficult for them to interact 'normally' with the rest of the world?

Do they become so focused on their work that it dominates their mind at the expense of everything else?

Or could it be that the percentages are no higher than with the rest of the population and it is either more noticeable because they are famous to begin with or do we just hear about them because the mental illness makes their story more interesting?

To be clear, I'm talking about people with real mental illnesses rather than people who wind up getting messed up from drugs and/or alcohol.

Answer 1

That's really true. Majority of great artists, musicians, scientists have aberrant behavior and border on mental disorders. Take for example, Albert Einstein. or Mozart.

Scientists have wondered for a long time why madness and creativity seem linked, particularly in artists, musicians, and writers," notes Shelley Carson, a Harvard psychologist. "Our research results indicate that low levels of latent inhibition and exceptional flexibility in thought predispose people to mental illness under some conditions and to creative accomplishments under others." Carson, Jordan Peterson (now at the University of Toronto), and Daniel Higgins did experiments to find out what these conditions might be.


They put 182 Harvard graduate and undergraduate students through a series of tests involving listening to repeated strings of nonsense syllables, hearing background noise, and watching yellow lights on a video screen. The students also filled out questionnaires about their creative achievements on a new type of form developed by Carson, and they took standard intelligence tests. When all the scores and test results were compared, the most creative students had lower scores for latent inhibition than the less creative.


"Getting swamped by new information that you have difficulty handling may predispose you to a mental disorder," Carson says. "But if you have high intelligence and a good working memory, you are more likely to be able to combine bits of new information in creative ways."

Answer 2

I am a pianist and have been called brilliant, even though I don't really think I am. I think differently than a lot of people and I 'live on the dark side of the moon' as I like to call it. My doctors have medical terms for it. My thoughts are different than most. I'm fairly intelligent with an IQ of 148. A lot of musicians are for some reason. It's just the way I am, but I know what you mean. I have other musician friends who are way more scary and nuts than I ever thought about being.

Answer 3

Well, yeah, SOME brilliant musicians and artists are nuts, but you don't hear much about the personal lives of the sane ones because it just isn't as interesting. I'm an artist and I think I'm more straight laced than most people I know, although some people think I'm eccentric, but I think they just think that because I'm an artist. Hm I wonder if a bit of insanity would make my work better, interesting question.

Answer 4

Being a musician, I pretty much understand what you are saying. I find myself thinking very differently from most people and is often ostracized for it. It's somewhat hard to explain but I think it's the amount of brain power we're using to create our art (namely the right side of our brains for creativity) and also...what we do with ourselves and art.

I think artists tend to just detach themselves from...themselves and put their selves in different places and other people's shoes to show something in their artwork (regardless of form). For example, if a painter were to draw something sad, they would put themselves in a mindset where they were completely surrounded by sadness, melancholy, and so on. They would paint while in this mindset, receiving the dreary imagery in their heads.

After a long while, it gets to you and causes you to think too much, which might cause some mental disorders to occur.

It's just a guess, but I think that's how it goes. I hope this helped somewhat.

Answer 5

I'm not much of a musician but I am good with science. I am considered a nut because I think on a different level than others but it is the same level that allows me to get the ideas that I have.

Answer 6

Well actually i have not herd of any really mentally ill musicians but i wuz thinking the same thing as you last year when i first saw a picture of green day, its shocking how good some songs can be and then they r ruined when u kno wut the people look like who are singing them!

Answer 7

thats simply because they are brilliant and that we are not...their senses have been more developed than ours! though u donot refer to those under drugs..but what u think about pink flyod??? arent they damn good! can u do like them?..well i think they have somthing we dont have ...or i would rather say something that have been developed more than ours....their senses!

Answer 8

It is called leb and they are seeds of a fruit similar to water melon.