Creativity and Mental Health
Is there a link?
Creativity is a skill of converting imaginative ideas into reality. It is highly valued and everyone wants as it can result in tremendous advancements in any field in which it is applied. Therefore many innovators, businessmen and government agencies try to find the most creative people to work for them to produce better outcomes. For many years the world is trying to figure out this problem of what exactly results in creativity. Psychiatrists have brainstormed in order to find a formula for it but still most of the aspects remain unknown. They still can’t figure out if creativity is due to the environmental factors or is it genetic and some are born with it. Every now and then new theories come up to explain why some people are more creative and others are not.
A popular theory among them is that creativity is linked to mental illness. Psychologists argue that when people suffer from mental illness, the process inculcates in them this skill through which people are able to perceive things around them in ways different from what normal people do. Thus it has now become quite a popular phrase “Crazy is one step closer to Creativity”.
It’s not just a random thought as we can see several examples from artistic fields of those who suffer from mental disorders. World has witnessed several talented musicians, comedians and artists succumb to their battle with depression, anxiety and other forms of mental illness. Recently people were saddened when Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington committed suicide when he could no longer fight his depression. This observation of people engaged in creative work fields suffering from mental illness is present since Aristotle’s time who said: “No great genius has ever existed without a strain of madness.” Even legends like Michelangelo, Vincent Van Gogh and Beethoven were victims of mental illness. This gives psychologists a strong hint that there is a link between the two and they try to study the correlation between them.
Research Work
To strengthen this theory, one needs evidence but many studies using tests and clinical assessments have not proven a connection between the two. To study such a thing one can consider two approaches. Study mental illness in creative people or study creativity in people suffering from mental disorders. But this can be a difficult task as this process is quite complex. Even when these studies have been done, credibility of a particular research work cannot be guaranteed due to limitations in the methods of conducting them. Besides studies that have been conducted give varying results.
Some say that these two are correlated, while some even say that one could assist in the other. Some also convey that no such link can be proved. There are also some studies which show that only some form of mental illness can be caused due to creativity and other major ones have no link. One can clearly see how haphazardly these studies are spread with no clear conclusion.
Even if we consider any research that provides a link between the two, they just demonstrate whether someone with mental illness was creative or not. The fundamental fact that one leads to another often is missing which makes the results from the research go nowhere. In contrast to some artists who had mental disorders, several artists are there who are successful and yet mentally healthy. This even makes us think whether all these links being searched are relevant or not.
Though different studies give different results, there is a common thing between most of the studies which found that bipolar disorder and creativity are strongly linked. We all are aware of how mood affects our state of mind. When we are in a good mood we feel motivated to do a thing and disorders like depression and schizophrenia hamper our mood. Bipolar disorder may be considered as an extreme case of mood swings in which one experiences periods of depression and elevated moods. It seems quite intuitive that this would affect creativity as the latter requires one to be in an elevated mood. Creativity is often suppressed by depression and thus a link that people suffering from bipolar disorder show less creativity can be established.
Limitations
A common method to conduct the research is that a sample population is taken and using a particular definition of creativity, several tests are performed based on which results are given. Major problem over here is that there is no standard definition of creativity that is available to all psychologists and most of the time bias enters through the sample that is being tested. Considering the first one, every research uses its own definition of creativity which does not allow a central conclusion to be formed which is consistent with several other research outcomes. Even if we define creativity properly, we can’t select a bunch of creative people efficiently as creativity is displayed in several fields and not just limited to artistic fields. Small sample size gives varying results and if only a particular community is considered for research, a central theory cannot be laid down. Major drawback lies in the fact that results from one study cannot be carried forward as every study considers its own parameters. Thus every new study must perform its own work from scratch which slows down the development pace to a great extent. This is one of the major reasons why so little is known about this topic.
Other factors which hamper the research are that many times mental disorders are treated by engaging patients in creative tasks. So creativity ought to come in them. This has no relation to mental illness but would come up in the research and give false results. It also might be the case that people with mental illness prefer artistic fields as they may have difficulty in studying theoretical subjects. Thus mentally ill people are generally creative but their creativity has no link to their illness and it just comes up in them as a part of their recovery process. Besides there is widespread substance abuse in creative fields which may also affect mental health of people in those fields. So this will make creative people suffer from mental disorders and yet there is no link between the two. Thus an attempt to study how one affects the other often goes in vain as it is difficult to select an appropriate sample which has this connection in true forms and not just due to external factors.
Future Directions
It is evident that studies do not offer much on the link between creativity and mental health as such that one leads to another. Given the current research methodologies, it is difficult to answer if there is any such relationship between the two. However one can see that mental illness to an increased extent can stop people to do their normal things. For example it is known well that depression prevents us from being engaged in any activity and it overpowers every sort of motivation. So eventually it will prevent one from being creative. But surely this can’t be used to strengthen the link between the two.
Then why does this link come in first place? It is perhaps that many famous artists had mental disorders in the first place. They were prodigy’s in their fields and thus their mental disorders attracted a huge amount of attention. Whereas most of the people are not so famous and thus any normal person being creative wouldn’t attract much attention. It might also be the case that we study this as it gives hope to people suffering from mental disorders that they must be good in certain artistic fields.
Thus in future, psychologists might want to strengthen their study mechanism which removes different biases from the study. Even if no such link is found they may want to look at the lifestyle of creative people and find whether it’s their lifestyle which leads them to develop mental disorders or not. When such a link is confirmed then several moral questions arise. Should doctors treat mentally ill people? As if they do, they would prevent a creative advancement in the artistic field. If they do not, person might succumb to the pressure that he is ought to deliver something and may commit suicide at some point of time. Then do the doctors stand responsible for this? Several questions can be asked and their answers would be clear only after noteworthy breakthroughs in the research. If we try to modify the research methods, then one day we might be able to answer these and put this age old debate to rest.
