Creating insanity...or is it the other way round?

Firstly, because schizophrenia will be mentioned frequently throughout this post: SCHIZOPHRENIA IS NOT A SPLIT PERSONALITY

In fact if you want a definition, here you go: "a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behaviour, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation." Pretty wordy. I know.

Guess who's the artist...

Secondly, you may or may not be aware of the notion that creativity is thought by some people to be akin for insanity. If you happen to be a very creative individual by no means am I calling you insane. I promise. My boyfriend is an artist and he's perfectly sane (well...I'll let you make of that what you will from the picture of him here. And yes, those are suit pyjamas) I am simply interested in a connection between the brain chemistry of individuals who happen to be gifted with a creative mind, and individuals affected by mental illness

Now let me explain.

Vincent van Gogh- Starry Night

Insanely artistic, or artistically insane?

Whilst Vincent van Gogh was creating some of the most brilliant paintings of all time, (unfortunately his brilliance was only recognized after he had died), he was consumed by mental illness. Plagued with depression, anxiety disorder at a paralyzing level and displaying symptoms of bipolar disorder, these illnesses eventually drove him to claim his own life in 1890.

Edvard Munch manifested the infamous "Scream" painting after one of his hallucinations had inspired him. He endured a life battling depression alongside agoraphobia (irrational fear of public places), and had reached the point of a mental breakdown. The Norwegian artist's family had a history with mental illness, which was most prevalent in his sister. 

However the interesting thing about Munch, is the intricate relationship he describes between his insanity and his creativity:

"My fear of life is neccessary to me, as is my illness. Without (...) I am a ship without a rudder."

(...) Their destruction would destroy my art."

Edvard Munch- Scream

Was Munch's creativity a product of his ill mental health, or was his mental health compromised by his creative ability? Would it have been possible for Gogh and Munch's creativity to excel if their mental illness's were non-existent? Are these men insane because they are artistic or is it their artistic ability that drives their insanity?

If you're wondering what my thoughts on this are, then I'll briefly tell you. My experiences with my own mental health have changed me as a person. I am far more compassionate and observant than I used to be, and I can say whilst I truly resent what mental illness is capable of destroying, I appreciate what it has made me capable of becoming. This is what I believe Munch was in some way describing too.

Research

Kari Stefansson, the founder and CEO of deCODE (a genetics company based in Reykjavik) conducted a study using the medical information from 86,000 Icelanders to identify genetic variants that doubled the average risk of schizophrenia as well as increasing the risk of bipolar disorder by over a third. After looking for how common these genetic variants were in individuals of art societies, there was a 17% increase (!!!!!!!!!!!) compared to the rest of the population. THERE'S MORE! So because this was a pretty incredible finding, these guys checked their findings in medical databases in the whole of the Netherlands and Sweden. In 35,000 people, "creative" people were nearly 25% more likely to carry the variants! So just imagine if we analysed this across the Globe...

These findings support the idea of the concept 'Mad Genius'- creativity has given the world Mozart's, van Gogh's, Nash's. It is an extremely important quality within society, it just comes at a price to the extraordinary 1% of the population.

Creativity does not always mean paintbrushes and pencils

1928-2015

John Nash who inspired the film 'A Beautiful Mind' (a must watch by the way, but make sure you're not wearing mascara) was an American Mathematician of whom suffered with schizophrenia. He believed all men in red ties were participating in a communist conspiracy against him, and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1959. Interestingly, he also describes his contributions to mathematic science as related to his mental illness. He was very worried about losing his recognition if he could not produce new ideas and new theories, and he attributed his motivation to excel to his disorder:

"I wouldn't have had good scientific ideas if I had thought more normally."

1946-2006

1950-1983

Then we have Syd Barett, who suffered from drug addiction and reportedly schizophrenia, yet he was the driving force for the formation of Pink Floyd. Ludwig van Beethovan produced beautiful music of which is still celebrated today, however in the process of creating these masterpieces he was living with mood disorders. Karen Carpenter was part of the Carpenters, creating well known songs like 'Top of the World'; although beneath the creation of such music was anorexia and mood disorders.

1942-2008

David Forster Wallace wrote a novel called "Infinite Jest" and he was considered to be one of the most astounding literary talents of his generation; with great sadness he actually committed suicide in 2008. Wallace was swamped by depression of which he was first diagnosed with whilst at college. Three years prior to his death, he spoke of suicide in a speech at Kenyon College, and one particular line pulls at every string and fibre in my heart:

"And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger." 

But so we see that it is not always about our conventional ideas of creativity, but of scientific, theoretic, mathematic, musical creativity too that has some form of a relationship to mental health.

I want you to understand how exceptional these individuals are. Most people who suffer with disorders such as schizophrenia are unable to engage in any kind of normal day-to-day functions, let alone excel in their own creative domains like these incredible minds were able to.

There's a hell of a lot going on in our brains

Creativity and insanity share traces of similarity, such as "thinking outside the box", processing thoughts and ideas very quickly, a heightened perception of visual, auditory and somatic stimuli. Think about what I have just told you. Where is all this occurring? Yep...say it...you're right...in our brains.

It is an intriguing idea that people who are living with mental illness themselves or with a family member who is suffering, have a higher chance of being creatively intelligent. 

Research

Professor Fredik Ullen has looked at the human brain chemistry and his findings illustrate a possibile explanation for these trends. He checked out dopamine (D2) receptor genes believed to be responsible mood and divergent thought. Of those studied who did well on tests of divergent thought (a thought process used to generate creative ideas by exploring as many solutions as possible) it was found that highly creative people had a significantly lower than expected density of D2 receptors in the thalamus; which is notable in diagnoses of schizophrenia too. The thalamus is basically like a filter for information heading on its way towards the cortex (which sorts out our cognition and reasoning). 

There are less of these little receptors in
people with schizophrenia!

The less D2 receptors here, the less filtering, thus there is a sh*t load more information flowing to the cortex. SO this kind of clues us in about the "thinking outside the box" concept: creative individuals see a connection between a break and a fix that most of us wouldn't know existed. 

Another thing that is important to highlight is that Mark Millard (member of the BPS) has stated that the overlap between mental health could explain why creative people have an astonishing amount of motivation. This is shown in e.g Nash's sheer determination to continually produce mathematic phenomena, and it is because of this: Creativity is uncomfortable for the individual. It is the dissatisfaction they feel with the present that motivates them to make changes.

"Creative people, like those with psychotic illnesses, tend to see the world differently to most. It's like looking at a shattered mirror. They see the world in a fractured way."