If you stop to think of the stereotypical artist, you probably are picturing someone who is at least a little bit mentally ill. We’ve all heard that creativity tends to be accompanied by madness, and there are seemingly countless examples of this.
The tortured artist stereotype, of the visual artist working on paintings in dark somber hues for day after day in a bid to hold off depression, or the writer who churns out inhuman amounts of top-quality work on a manic high, is very common.
Is there an actual link between madness and genius, or are these merely isolated cases that have gotten a great deal of press?
That is hard to say. Even scholars and practicing psychiatrists don’t all agree on the answer. Research has found a correlation between mental illness and creativity however.
One such study, conducted by the Stanford University School of Medicine, showed that children who had higher risk for development of bipolar disorder (from having ADHD or parents with the disorder) had significantly higher scores on measures of artistic creativity than did children who were not at elevated risk. This intriguing finding has medical professionals exploring further.
Another study, conducted by the University of Toronto with Harvard University, found that creative people are also distractible people. Creative people are less able to adequately filter out external stimuli. Because of this, they often work better in isolated settings with minimal outside noise.
No one can dispute that many of the most famous artists and writers and musicians of the modern age have struggled with mental disorders like depression or bipolar disorder. Some of these creative people are household names because of their accomplishments, even.
We can’t fully prove this fascinating issue, and so will continue to discuss and debate it for many years to come. More research is necessary if we are going to better understand the link between mental disorder and genius. The popular notion of the tortured artist will undoubtedly endure regardless, as it has become a very romantic and compelling stereotype.
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