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PubMed1998

Creativity and mental illness: is there a link?

OBJECTIVE: To critically assess the scientific evidence for associating creativity with mental illness. METHOD: MEDLINE and secondary literature searches identified 29 studies and 34 review articles on creativity and mental illness. All studies were critically evaluated. Reviews were also assessed. RESULTS: Of 29 studies that evaluated possible associations between creativity and mental illness, 15 found no evidence to link creativity and mental illness, 9 found positive evidence, and 5 had unclear findings. Most studies used flawed methodologies with weak (case series or case control) designs. There were no randomized or prospective cohort studies. Adequate criteria for determining causal association were not met. In 34 selective reviews, despite mixed evidence, many authors asserted that creativity and mental illness were positively or causally associated. CONCLUSIONS: There is limited scientific evidence to associate creativity with mental illness. Despite this, many authors promoted a connection. Explanations for this contradiction are explored, and social and research implications are discussed.

Creativity↗
PubMed1976

A comparative study of attentional strategies of schizophrenic and highly creative normal subjects.

Frequent references have been made to the similarities between highly creative and psychotic thinking. This study attempts to test the hypothesis that one explanation for such a correspondence lies in the fact that individuals in both these populations habitually employ common attentional strategies which cause them to sample an unusually wide range of available environmental stimuli. A group of highly creative adults and a group of equally intelligent but low creative adults were compared with a group of acute non-paranoid schizophrenic adults on three tests designed to assess attentional and other cognitive styles. The results offer support to the view that both highly creative and schizophrenic individuals habitually sample a wider range of available environmental input than do less creative individuals. In the case of the schizophrenic this involuntary widening of attention tends to have a deleterious effect on performance, while, in contrast, the highly creative individual is more able to successfully process the greater input without this incurring a performance deficit.

Achievement↗
PubMed1976

Creativity and body image boundaries.

Descriptions of the creative individual or the individual who can regress in the service of the ego seem to parallel Fisher and Cleveland's (1968) description of the high barrier individual: well-integrated; self-sufficient, but often outgoing and communicative; and able to experience a full range of sensation and emotions without neurotic anxiety. The relationships between Barrier and five measures associated with creativity were investigated, using 100 paid male college student volunteers. The results support the notion that creativity is not a functional unity. Barrier was found to be related to aristic, expressive creativity which seems to be related to interest in human interactions, but unrelated to creativity associated with scientific endeavors and unrelated to creative receptivity (i.e., purest adaptive regression).

Art↗
PubMed1989

Changes in creativity with age: data, explanations, and further predictions.

Changes in creativity with age, it is argued, seem very probable. A variety of personal qualities usually found in creative people are examined. While conclusive evidence is sometimes lacking, it seems likely that most of these would change with age so as to affect creative productivity, usually adversely. Moreover, many theories of creativity representing a variety of intellectual traditions are discussed, and most of these predict aging decrements of some sort. However, it is also suggested that the creativity decline may vary, being more pronounced a) when the attribute of originality is predominant, b) in the sciences, as opposed to the arts and humanities, c) when certain motives, notably self-expression and sublimation of sexuality, are operative, and d) for male as compared to female creators. Finally, creativity may simply change rather than decline with age, with differing stylistic and thematic concerns gaining priority.

Aging↗
PubMed1991

Effect of alcohol on quantity of creative production using the Purdue tests.

An experiment was performed to test whether a moderate dose of alcohol (1 ml of 100% alcohol/kg body weight) facilitates the production of creative solutions as measured with a standard creativity test and whether a creative attitude interacts with alcohol in this respect. The 60 subjects were randomly assigned to either an alcohol, a placebo, or a control group, with 10 women and 10 men in each group. Two different personality tests measuring the creative attitude were administered a priori. Analysis indicated that both the placebo and alcohol groups produced significantly less creative solutions to the ten stimulus pictures. The a priori attitude scores significantly predicted the creativity scores for the placebo and alcohol subjects but not for the control subjects. Results were discussed in terms of disinhibition and cognitive changes under alcohol.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Creativity and the management team.

What is creativity? Is it an untempered gift found only in a few rare individuals? Or, is it a skill that can be developed in the people who make up your management team? As applied to medical group practice, creativity is a process through which the management team can originate ideas for responding to a complicated environment. To be effective, creativity must be fostered in individuals and in the organization. Drawing from lessons of successful corporations, the author examines the management styles which are conducive to creativity and innovation. Strong team management and proper orientation of new staff members are essential in building a foundation for creativity. To assist medical groups, key elements that are fundamental to fostering creativity in the organization are presented.

Creativity↗
PubMed1988

Right-brain techniques: a catalyst for creative thinking and internal focusing. A study of five writers and six psychotherapists.

Comparing the scientific reports of brain researchers such as Sperry, Bogen, Diamond, Geschwind, and Hoppe with the subjective reports of high achievers in various fields of the arts, sciences, and industry reveals that there is a correlation between creative thinking and right hemisphere specialization. Learning how to stimulate right hemisphere activity can be of great benefit to high achievers in fields that require one to be internally focused, to be sensitive to the intonations of voice and body-language, to comprehend symbols and metaphors, to think visually and holistically, to work constructively with affect, or to enhance imaginative thinking. This report is a subjective study of how five writers and six psychotherapists experienced one three-hour session of Inner Vision techniques, which I developed to stimulate creative thinking and inner focusing by enhancing right hemisphere activity. During the session, all of the psychotherapists and all but one of the writers reported that these mental imagery exercises produced a significant increase in the flow of creative ideas and enabled them to gain insights into important personal issues. One writer experienced resistance; two psychotherapists reported feelings of solace; two writers and two psychotherapists indicated that they have gained new perspectives on professional issues--one writer solved a major problem regarding the central character in his book; six psychotherapists and three writers gained new perceptions on important personal issues; five psychotherapists and four writers reported feelings of intense joy, even liberation, during the session. All eleven participants indicated that they had experienced vivid and imaginative imagery. The constructive use of imagination is essential for creative work and mental health. Writers who have the skill to program their imaginations to gain creative insights at times of their own choosing obviously will be more productive than writers who sit around waiting for the benevolent muse. Psychotherapists who use Inner Vision techniques in their own lives find that it is a valuable tool for interior focusing; those who use it with their patients have reported that this is a practical, effective technique for helping patients attain greater psychologic integration. An important way in which this program differs from other imagery techniques is that the vivid imagery of the right-hemisphere work is followed by left-brain analysis and evaluation. The ultimate goal is the transformational intercallosal process of symbollexia--the "magic synthesis" of right-brain and left-brain specialization for an enhanced ability to live and work creatively.

Affect↗
PubMed1985

[Creativeness and performance strengths in schizophrenic patients].

Three positions concerning empirically detectable associations between (endogenous) psychosis and creativity are discussed: One which postulates a degeneration both in psychosis and creative people, another which tends to equalize creativity and psychosis and a third one which regards creativity as positive and psychosis as an illness. The latter position is well in accord with empirical results. These results are pointing to something which creativity has in common with psychosis. This common conditioning factor is probably a distinctive cognitive style and, depending on the specific context, presents itself either in a positive way (creativity) or as psychotic disorganisation.

Achievement↗
PubMed1983

Creativity in management in family medicine.

Family practice presents some complex patient management problems with organic, social, and psychological components. There is a great potential for creative problem solving in such patient management problems, in that many alternative solutions are possible. A cross-sectional study was carried out to test the hypothesis that "more creative people as defined by a standard creativity test would have a better quality of management." Sixteen volunteers from the University of Western Ontario Family Practice Residency Program completed a written management problem and the Barron Welsh Art Scale, which is a measure of a person's preference for complexity. The number of options given in each answer was calculated, and the results showed that more creative residents had a higher quality of management score, a higher number of high-quality options, more options of an interpersonal nature, and a higher proportion of original options. The results suggest that creative people are more able to generate the number and types of options that are needed for quality management. The higher proportion of original options may represent a more comprehensive approach to management, and the creative groups' preference for complexity may enable them to deal more effectively with the problem. These results are not generalizable but indicate a need for further investigation into this area.

Creativity↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Temperament as a prerequisite of creative capabilities].

Temperamental and creative characteristics were compared in three groups of subjects who manifested a bent for creative activity. The groups differed in their age: 14-year-old schoolchildren of architectural class (n = 20), 18 to 20-year-old students of architectural institute (n = 94), and 25 to 45-year-old professional architects (n = 25). The temperamental properties were measured using the STQ method. The creative characteristics were evaluated by E. P. Torrance's non-verbal tests of creative thinking. In the structure of creative abilities, only two creative characteristics, i.e., fluency and flexibility, correlated at the statistically significant level with temperamental properties in all the age-specific groups under study. The closest correlations were found with plasticity and emotionality of temperament both in object-related and subject-related spheres.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

On the relationship between the creative and social-emotional development of emotionally handicapped children.

Examined the relationship between the creative and social-emotional development of emotionally handicapped children (N = 78). The question of primary interest was whether changes in social emotional development over the course of treatment would parallel changes in creativity. Two samples of emotionally handicapped children were rated on their mastery of social-emotional objectives and were given similar forms of a creativity test at the beginning and end of an 8-week period. In both samples a significant relationship was found between changes in social-emotional status and creativity. Creative and social-emotional changes occurred independently of most variables known about a child at the beginning of treatment. Possible explanations and implications of this relationship are discussed.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed1989

Creativity in old age: a longitudinal study.

A creativity test was administered to a selected sample of 52 subjects all 70 years old and repeated in the same group 13 years later. The stimuli used were diffuse ink-blots coded for three components of creativity: fluency, flexibility and originality. The three components were also summed to form a composite creativity score. Repeated analyses showed no age-related changes in the creativity scores obtained at the two testing times. Furthermore, no gender differences nor age and gender inter-actions were found. The results of this longitudinal study indicate that, contrary to earlier findings from cross-sectional studies, creativity does not seem to decline significantly in old age.

Age Factors↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Bipolar affective disorder and creativity: implications and clinical management.

Research on the relationship between creativity and mental illness is summarized, and studies documenting a relationship in writers between creativity and affective illness (particularly bipolar illness) are described. Writers have a high prevalence of affective illness, and both affective illness and creativity have increased frequency in their first-degree relatives. The clinical management of the creative individual is challenging. In general, creative individuals are most productive when their affective symptoms are under good control.

Bipolar Disorder↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Creativity of undergraduates with and without family history of alcohol and other drug problems.

Noble, Runco, and Ozkaragoz (1993) provided evidence that alcoholics' children differ negatively from recovering alcoholics' and nonalcoholics' children in terms of personality characteristics related to creativity. They also found that divergent thinking test scores among the three groups of children are similar, yet the possibility exists that offspring compensate for the personality deficits and maintain productively creative lives in spite of the negative influence of parental substance use. This study investigated the impact of parental substance abuse problems on 163 undergraduates' creative achievement. With current alcohol consumption as a covariate, analysis of covariance results suggest that parental alcohol and drug problems do not have an appreciable effect on students' creative achievement, although marginally significant interaction of gender and family history provides limited evidence that gender may influence the impact of parental substance abuse on creativity. Because the true effects of parental substance abuse may not be felt for several years, future research should investigate these issues with older offspring.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

The use of imagery by intelligent and by creative schoolchildren.

Two studies focusing on differences in thinking strategies between intellectually gifted and creative children were undertaken. In the first study (N = 29), ethnographic techniques of observation along with testing and problem-solving interviews were used in a regular classroom. Three subjects (one high IQ and high creativity, one high IQ and low creativity, and one low IQ and high creativity) were identified for intensive observation. In the second study, testing procedures and problem-solving interviews were completed with 30 children who were placed in a gifted program within an urban school system. Both studies produced evidence supporting the link between imaging abilities and creative thinking.

Attention↗
PubMed1989

Artifact in the hypnosis-creativity relationship.

Subjects who pretested high or low in hypnotic suggestibility took a creativity test either under hypnosis or in a waking state. All subjects made a global estimate of their general degree of creativity. Greater figural-spatial creativity was exhibited in the hypnosis condition than in the waking condition by both high and low suggestibles. Creativity self-reports were not corroborated by actual creative performance.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Notes on emotional components of musical creativity and performance.

We explored emotional accompaniments to stages of a musician's cycle of creativity through interviews with musicians. Creativity was defined in terms of performance or composition. These musicians described strong emotional vacillations that occur across the creative cycle and discussed ways of dealing with emotional issues involved in moving from one work to the next. Parallels were drawn between emotional aspects of completing a performance or composition to emotional aspects of termination in psychotherapy. Suggestions were offered to musicians for means of dealing with naturally occurring but powerful emotional components of creativity. In addition, some of the musicians suggested that music educators consider teaching students about potential emotional issues that may accompany creative effort. An integration of these issues into music education programs might better prepare students for careers as professional musicians.

Creativity↗
PubMed1989

Mood disorders and patterns of creativity in British writers and artists.

Extremes in mood, thought and behavior--including psychosis--have been linked with artistic creativity for as long as man has observed and written about those who write, paint, sculpt or compose. The history of this long and fascinating association, as well as speculations about its reasons for being, have been discussed by several modern authors and investigators, including Koestler (1975), Storr (1976), Andreasen (1978), Becker (1978), Rothenberg (1979), Richards (1981), Jamison (in press) and Prentky (in press). The association between extreme states of emotion and mind and creativity not only is fascinating but also has significant theoretical, clinical, literary and societal-ethical implications. These issues, more thoroughly reviewed elsewhere (Jamison et al. 1980; Richards 1981; Jamison, in press), include the understanding of cognitive, perceptual, mood and behavioral changes common to manic, depressive and creative states; the potential ability to lessen the stigma of mental illness; effects of psychiatric treatment (for example, lithium) on creativity; and concerns raised about genetic research on mood disorders. The current study was designed to ascertain rates of treatment for affective illness in a sample of eminent British writers and artists; to study differences in subgroups (poets, novelists, playwrights, biographers, artists); to examine seasonal patterns of moods and productivity; and to inquire into the perceived role of very intense moods in the writers' and artists' work. One of the major purposes of this investigation was to look at possible similarities and dissimilarities between periods of intense creative activity and hypomania. Hypothesized similarities were based on the overlapping nature of mood, cognitive and behavioral changes associated with both; the episodic nature of both; and possible links between the durational, frequency and seasonal patterns of both experiences.

Art↗