Mental Illness and Creativity

People who are creative are thought to suffer from mental illnesses, more often than the average person. Illnesses such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are found in artists and scientists.

Recently researchers have found that families with a family history of Bipolar and Schizophrenia were more likely to have children who are evolved in the arts and sciences.

The researchers looked at the records of patients and their relatives and found that certain mental illness are more common among artists and scientists. Writers in particular were stricken with schizophrenia, depression, anxiety and substance abuse and they also were more likely to have family members being treated for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anorexia and autism.

New studies show hat a genetic differences in creative people and those with psychoses may be an answer to a link between creativity and mental illnesses.

The idea of a link between insanity and genius dates back to the Ancient Greeks who believed that creativity came from the Gods.
The viewpoint and imagination of psychotic people differs from the normal functioning mind and it is said that they can see things that others cannot.

People are at a creative peak when they are in a positive mood, such as mania in Bipolar Disorder, and during a depressive episode this creativity is suppressed. Adverse problems with poverty, persecution, stress and environmental factors which may contribute to the development of a mental illness.

Bipolar disorder with flight of ideas, delusions and hallucinations a heightened response to audio and visual stimuli associated with the mania and the psychotic symptoms, seen in Bipolar I disorder can contribute to the creativity which can be seen in these individuals. people with bipolar disorder may feel powerful emotions during both depressive and manic phases, mania decreases inhibitions and the persons behavior is often dramatic and unconventional.






It is interesting that many notable individuals have a history or mental illness in their family makeup; James Joyce's daughter was schizophrenic and Albert Einstein's son also suffered with schizophrenia.

Bipolar disorder is found more in people with artistic or scientific professions, such as dancers, researchers, photographers and were more likely to commit suicide than the general population.

These studies are not conclusive evidence that mental illness causes creativity however some diagnoses done posthumously on noted individuals such as Sylvia Plath, Virginia Wolf, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway and Michelangelo offer interesting insights into the idea that creativity and genius often is linked with mental illness.