Mental Illness and the Creative Mind: Not a Dime’s Bit of Difference?

There has long been a suspected link between creativity and madness.

Introduction

I frequently ruminate about my general inability to focus on most anything other than my writing — which I attribute to undiagnosed Attention Deficit Disorder — in relation to an equivalent and near-neurotic compulsion to create art.

As a former special education teacher whose populations included autistic children and adults across the spectrum, my theories on the matter were initially based on observing my students’ temperaments before and after arts and crafts class.

Invariably, the students who were capable of a semblance of creation immensely settled, regardless of their usual behavior patterns. Those who were among the most behaviorally severe, even, substantially calmed when seated in front of a computer to design graphics, or an easel to paint, or having been given a journal in which to write.

Yet nearly all of the troubled students shared another trait, something I considered equally intriguing: a close family member with artistic inclinations.

Whether one has been diagnosed with a learning disability, or suffers from a more severe mental illness, the calming and healing power of art is certainly something to witness.

The 2010 Karolinska Institutet Study — Stockholm, Sweden

In 2010, Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet was the first to suggest a measurable biological component to the creativity-mental illness enigma. See here.

Throughout history, artists have been stereotyped as “self-centered” or “self-destructive,” frequently both. The word “tortured” is perhaps the most commonly-used adjective, as artists are frequently looked upon as excessive drinkers, drug abusers and sex-addicts with little control over their impulses. There is some truth to the equation, of course. Historians tend to look to literary figures such as Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London, Virginia Woolf, Hunter S. Thompson, Ernest Hemingway and David Foster Wallace to prove their contention. Or, in other arenas, Vincent van Gogh, Kurt Cobain, John Belushi and Robin Williams. The list appears to be, unfortunately, endless.

One of my friends who took his life was a talented screenwriter who had written a horror script entitled “Hope Lost.” He hung himself when financing for his project fell through.

If only I had taken the title of his work as a sign.

I tend to be somewhat leery on the ‘all artists are mad’ perspective, however, as laborers in other industries are not immune to such potentially dangerous seductions. Statistically, though, artists tend to trod that path more than most, and there may be a reason: Several studies have concluded, indeed, that individuals possessing a high degree of creativity are more likely to have a mentally ill family member.

That genetic link led to the Karolinska Institutet study, which studied biology’s role in the matter. In layman’s terms, the study concluded that artists and schizophrenics tended to share a similar brain chemistry. (Refer to the above press release for a more detailed scientific explanation.)

Previous international studies concluded that the concept of “thinking outside the box,” also known as divergent thinking, was associated with lower dopamine receptor activity in the thalamus, the same tendency shared by those suffering from schizophrenia. The Karolinska Institutet study used PET scans on their 13 artistically-inclined subjects to validate the older studies.

The Science of Epigenetic Memories

This more recent 2017 study regards the passing of DNA information from generation to generation, and the finding that environment can also effect genetic change. See here.

Though on first glance this study may appear to have little to do with our topic, consider the following reminder: Older studies have shown that descendants of Holocaust survivors tend to possess lower levels of the hormone cortisol, which helps our bodies recover following a trauma, while others have found that descendants of women who survived the Dutch famine of 1944–1945 typically suffer from increased glucose intolerance in adulthood.

These statements are viable in relation to our topic for several reasons:

• Some theorists have postulated that the process of creativity is essentially an active, subconscious recall of ancestral memory. Let’s take this one step further. If DNA memory is real, is it worth questioning, at the very least, whether the human mind has the ability to recall certain events, emotions, and habits of prior generations? This is not to say that entities from our family’s past have blown up Death Stars, or flew like Superman, or attended wizard academies like Hogwarts. It is to say that the trait of human imagination may be a considerably more complex tool than heretofore considered. Perhaps past imagination seeds present imagination, which may help explain how the most visionary science fiction tends to become science fact in the passage of time.
• If so, we must look further into one’s triggers for the compulsion to use that imagination and create.
• Several studies have postulated that the highly-creative person (HCP) has traits in common with those suffering from autism, Aspergers syndrome, Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and severe emotional disturbances. Specifically, as levels (spectrums) exist for each — though this example does not imply that the HCP suffers from any of these disorders — test subjects nonetheless have placed on the farthest extreme of each in terms of shared compulsions and other traits.

The precise mechanism of the imagination-creativity spark remains one of man’s greatest riddles, though of late clear progress is being made towards a greater understanding of each ... due to a new appreciation of their value as legitimate fields of psychiatric and scientific study.

Conclusions

Though by no means is this article meant to be a comprehensive view of the matter, I cannot help but ponder too how much of our supernatural world — not being ghosties and beasties, but simply aspects of our existence we do not comprehend — is enmeshed in that connection.

Thoughts to ponder:

• Referring again to one of my favorite genres, how do great science fiction artists (referring to book cover illustrators and painters, primarily) paint such finely-detailed cityscapes and alien life forms without having ever stepped foot in those (imaginary) realms? The follow-up question is, as ever: “What drives them?”
• How many starving actors, writers and other artists move to artistic hubs such as Los Angeles or New York, then find themselves on the streets addicted to meth, alcohol or other substances when their careers do not progress? The website www.drugrehab.com, which places substance abuse in the arts towards the top of the list of afflicted professions, states the following: Employees abuse a variety of drugs for many of reasons. These professions receive the most attention for celebrity overdoses and visits to rehab. However, the industry’s larger layman workforce is just as likely to suffer consequences of drug abuse as their famous counterparts. Risk factors in the industry include long hours, high turnover, high-pressure jobs, young workers and workplace cultures conducive to illicit drug use.
• The act of creating appears to be, pardon the cliche, a double-edged sword. For many, including my former students and myself, creating is its own drug. For others, drugs fuel the creativity. In both instances, an escape into another state of consciousness is parallel to the creation itself.

The relationship(s) between art and madness is an exciting field to study, as so much work still needs to be done.

That said, the next time you are compelled to sit in front of a keyboard, pick up a paintbrush, or record a demo … ask yourself this: “What degree of pain will I feel if I do not partake?

P.S. If you relate to the above Henry James quote, you have proven to me the worth of this article. If you are a creative person who relates to this one as well, you have validated my effort: “If I wasn’t an an actor, I’d be a serial killer.” — Terence Stamp, actor