What can Mental Illness Teach you about Creativity?

There seems to be a link between mental illness and creativity, which is interesting. Obviously, theirs the example of one of the most famous artists of all time, who cut his ear off in a mysterious act of self-mutilation but also went on to make many a masterpiece, Vincent Van Gogh.

His painting, The Starry Night, depicts his view from the east-facing window of his asylum just before sunrise. The artwork depicts a sense of calmness, a dark, peaceful feeling, and a plaguing depression. Throughout his life, psychiatric illness plagued Van Gogh. Most experts agree that he lived with psychosis in some form. After cutting off his ear in December of 1888, psychiatric professionals diagnosed Van Gogh with “Acute mania with generalized delirium” and “mental epilepsy.”

Historical Links

Everyone knows about the mad genius, the scientist who, although clinically insane, is incredibly inventive and evidently creative. This idea of the link between creativity and psychopathology dates back to the days of Aristotle, known as antiquity.

Antiquity is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD, mainly centered on the Mediterranean Sea, including ancient Greece and ancient Rome civilizations. Since then, the greatest minds have associated creativity with psychopathology, resulting in the mad genius idea.

Evidence

Since antiquity, this idea has been developed and expanded by various psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, and psychologists. In 2012, a study was published titled Mental Illness, Suicide, and Creativity. The study investigated “i) if creativity is associated with all psychiatric disorders or restricted to those with psychotic features, and ii) to specifically investigate authors about psychopathology.” The study found that by looking at the Swedish population registers, people with creative professions are less likely to suffer from psychiatric disorders than controls. However, being an author was specifically associated with an increased likelihood of mental illness. They also found a link between creative professions and first-degree relatives of patients with mental illness.

How Does the Evidence Apply to You?

This is fascinating. The study depicts that if someone is creative, more likely than not, they have some form of mental illness. It also interestingly describes that creative people have no more significant chance of developing a mental illness. Instead, if you have a mental illness, you will likely go on to be creative.

Although the facts state this, the why of the situation still needs to be clarified. Where does creativity come from, and how can we tap into that?

Creativity applies thoughts from the ebb and flow of daily life; to feel emotions, dreams, and the world around you. Then we make art or express ourselves to organize all this information. Human beings are inherently creative. It’s in our genes. Pablo Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

Through our upbringing and particularly school, creativity is not graded nor placed on a pedestal but instead shunned. As I’m in my last year of secondary education, my concentration is on my job after school, where I’m going to university, and what I’m doing for the rest of my life. Which is harmful in fostering the creatives of the future; first, you find a job, then you work around it to do what you love; it seems backward to me.

Steps to Kickstarting Creativity

I have learned from this post that to be creative, you must look at the world differently. You must question things others ignore, be interested in everything, and question everything. I am going to foster this way of looking at the world in the following steps;

Keep a small book on me and a pen to filter the world, looking for things that interest me.
Come up with 3 creative ideas a day. Whether that is a story idea, a weird concept, or a funny drawing. This is so I get in the habit of thinking creatively.
Finally, I will spend more time bored. I plan to spend 30 minutes alone with my thoughts. I will do a daily 30-minute walk with no music or stimulus but my thoughts and the environment.

Please join me in your journey for creativity. Thank you for reading