Creativity Linked to Mental Illness, Study Confirms

I take issue with this whole "creatives and non-creatives" arguments. Every living human is creative.

Originally posted by antonia
I take issue with this whole "creatives and non-creatives" arguments. Every living human is creative.

therefore...every living human is mentally ill.

Originally posted by BigBrotherDarkness

Originally posted by antonia
I take issue with this whole "creatives and non-creatives" arguments. Every living human is creative.

therefore...every living human is mentally ill.

I wouldn't disagree with that actually.

reply to post by jough626

Reach in, pull out cash, research if buying and driving a new Ferrari is a good idea or not.

It's not. It's a stupid waste of money.

Research into mental illness is extremely important. It's not news that "eccentrics" tend to be the most creative and nonconformist (CREATIVE = able to CREATE things out of original thoughts and ideas).

There's not a damned thing wrong with being creative. Those folks are generally BRILLIANT in their own way, and it's the mediocrity of "average" people that drive them to the brink of madness.

OP can call it "mumbo jumbo" all they like; advances in mental health are CRITICAL for the future of this race.

No offense toward the OP, but this is a mix of intelligent and yet stupid article writing in the source content. As I understand how mental disorders can cause increased creativity in the human brain due to abnormal and often times, fluctuating neuro-chemicals in the brain - many people are very creative with no mental disorder present at all. And those with serious mental disorders, such as schizophrenia and/or bipolar disorder often use creative thinking and artistic expression as an outlet for showing complicated emotional states and as a means of venting negative as well as positive emotions. This article would almost imply that they are saying that the source of creativity is a mental imbalance in the brain alone - which I hope that they are not inferring. Some of the greatest artists have suffered with psychological disorders as well as a lot who have not.

reply to post by Rubicant13


Thats exactly, what they are trying to state in the article and to prove it they need funding...stupid isn't it? But then again pork barrel spending is a plague some stuff is so stupid and useless to study...but the government keeps setting aside grant money for this type of thing so...

reply to post by antonia


Being gifted comes with a high prize, seeing things differently like in a Einstein way

Originally posted by paranoidfreak
reply to post by antonia

 

Being gifted comes with a high prize, seeing things differently like in a Einstein way

Yes, and some of those who cannot see outside of the box feel the need to find fault with those who can, so that they can feel like the "normal" ones. Like someone else said, 'what is normal?' None of us are the same. That is a good thing. Who wants a box full of only green crayons? Boring!

reply to post by Daedal

The term "Mental Illness" is quite often applied to those who exhibit superior thought, myself inclusive. I once had a highly educated PHd tell me my mind worked on a much higher level that his own, and he felt it necessary to drug my mind down so he could then understand what I was saying. Creative and Inventive people have always been ostracised by society, nothing new there. But I would have to say "mentally ill" people built America, went into space, and explored the seas. And we watch them on TV and movies.

Well I can part testify to this research being Bi-polar and all. My father is a very talented research chemist and I am in the field of communication electronics. I will testify that I seem to find some things a lot easier than "normal" people but this is far outweighed by the ammount of things I find much harder than "normal" people to deal with.

This study does not indicate that creative types or artists are mentally ill. Only that they are congenitally pre-disposed to such illness.

I would say on the surface that that seems correct. Creative types are different. There is often a fine line between genius and mental illness.


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I honestly can't understand why they would spend so much time and money toward useless studies such as this.
what ever happened to healthy people being able to be the creative geniuses they were born to be? I believe that these studies are meant to down creativity by associating it with negativity and try and conform everyone into a uniform state of blandness *sigh*

Originally posted by R3KR
How bout we make invent another mental illness, well call it "sheepism". For all of those people that follow along, and dont create anything. Because taking away creativity and demonizing it is the most disgusting thing I have heard from society.

I believe it already exist under the name mainstream psychiatry. If you ask me the reason (other than the exuberant amount of profit seen by pharmaceutical companies) people continue to create more and more labels for various kinds of "mental illness" is because it gives those not diagnosed with a mental illness the absurd notion they are sane.

But seriously psychiatry has become a joke. Another reason they do it is because after so many years the patent on said medications goes bad, at that time generic forms can be made and introduced into the market so the company loses money. Then they pay a Dr. to support and diagnose/prescribe something new that they have a patent ($) on.

Meanwhile, funds for mental health are being cut across states. It is one of the least funded programs in my home state, and I would fathom the same for much of the United States.

For instance

PSYCHIATRIST “soul healer” (ψυχή, psukhē, meaning “breath; spirit; soul”); and (ἰατρεία, iatreia, meaning “healing”)

Quite a disparity between the literal meanings of the words and meanings the mental health profession imbues them with today. What is the significance of this gap between historical meaning and present-day usage? Eduardo Duran attempts to answer the question:

SOURCE

We can heal a lot with modern medicine, I for one doubt the Soul is one of them. I have been wrong before though.

reply to post by Daedal


Of course its a mental disorder, creativity is the basis of free thinking and imagination... They don't want people with imagination that can think on their own... The new standard is a low IQ close minded individual that does nothing on is own but to imitate what he's shown...

"I don't want a nation of thinkers. I want a nation of workers."
John D. Rockefeller

Once they expanded the scope of "mental illness" to fit whom they want into it they'll be legally able to force you to take your "medication" and they'll be able to do it legally because you won't be "fit" to take decisions that's in your "cough" best interest...

reply to post by nixie_nox

Thanks for the link:
Unraveling Bolero by radiolab
...Fascinating stuff.
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Tongue-in-cheek:
So, following the same logic... ppl who do studies on creative people, is in itself a creative step. So they should be considered creative people in their own right, and lumped together with all the other families of creative types.
And people who would use a study of creative people to somehow sneakily and subtlety put them down are also creative in their own right as well.
This reminds me of the saying: Don't judge, because there are four fingers pointing back at ya!
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As a Christian, I believe that -real creativity- comes from the Creator. It's a big aspect of who He is (along with Love, His biggest characteristic). Being, or trying to be close can result in much creativity flowing from Him.... wonderful stuff. So in this light, the study does not wash out.

Hm, there are serious debates about definition of the mental illness as such. People usually think that mental disorders are easily to define, but this is not so. Abraham Maslov for example, posed the question of what is mental health, what makes the individual mentally healthy.

There were also other thinkers and psychiatrist, like for example Thomas Szasz discussing the issue of social oppression through treating and diagnosing mental illnesses.
Those two are just the ones that first came to my mind regarding this lame research. One should dig deeper in a theoretical aspect of the field, to find out that common presumptions regarding mental health may not be valid at all. Or are just partially valid.

reply to post by Daedal


lofty imbalance leads to mental illness. whether creative or logical.

too much logic without emotional intelligence can produce a cold blooded killing machine.. and dont take the word 'machine' lightly.

The DSM is seen to many as a tool of eugenics. You are pigeon holed, labeled, quantified, and treated by an oft times incorrect oracle used by these fortune tellers AKA your prognosis predicted by a psychiatrist. You look in the DSM.. you will see yourself. IMO mental illness isnt like a toothache or a broken arm and doesnt follow some set and patent course. Psychiatrists ( and drs for that matter) dont actually "diagnose" anymore, they follow a 1-2-3 step book only to get a diagnosis to ascertain which wonderdrug to give you. Psychiatrists use tests that are designed to ferret out any aberrant thinking, so they can slap a label on it to push a drug on you. Id went to a dr who had the audacity to use his little drug bible from the pharmaceutical co in front of me, but this is standard practice. A personal example is someone close to me "flipped their lid" and needed help. The latest buzz drugs made the person markedly worse... as in psychotic. The Dr refused to use old time lithium.. why? Because it demands maintenance ( blood tests dosage tweaking) and he was bought by a pharmaceutical co. What kind of nut would give a person in a manic phase a tricyclic antidepressant? A Dr who was bought by a pharmaceutical co, thats who. A year or so later a Dr was finally found that actually diagnosed and did what was best for the PT and not the pharmaceutical co. Lithium and Trazodone versus Lamictal, Abilify and Prozac. Its kind of hard to be creative when youre so extremely paranoid and out of control during a manic phase... and suicidally depressed with rapid cycling. I am outraged at money being pumped into this sort of idiotic research and not into the actual proper diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. The DSM has been revised and changed HOW many times?? Youd think by now they would have figured out that mental health is a fluid malleable thing. Now we get to include being creative as an aberrant trait. Still shooting arrows at the ancient satellite, arent we?


Just my opinion, but studies like these are dangerous in their uselessness. They support the erroneous labeling and faulty treatment of mental illness. They also bring out that : "Im a special snowflake case Im mentally ill an oh so creative" BS in some. No, mental illness doesnt include you in some coolio creative club.. nor does it excuse actions. Sweeping points of diagnosis include a LOT of folks who are not suffering from ( lets say) Bipolar. This skews the research.. the MISdiagnosis due to faulty criteria or misinterpreted criteria... which leads to faulty inclusion and MORE misdiagnosis and lacking treatment or mistreatment of those suffering from (lets say) bipolar. You see the same in other fields of science during research.. and its squashed when its noted. Why does psychiatry get such a golden pass? Rhetorical question...

As a Christian, I believe that -real creativity- comes from the Creator. It's a big aspect of who He is (along with Love, His biggest characteristic). Being, or trying to be close can result in much creativity flowing from Him.... wonderful stuff. So in this light, the study does not wash out.

If I believed in the God and Devil arch types; I would argue that it it comes from the Devil...the tree of everlasting life equals no damnation and being on creators side. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, is the ability to understand and comprehend duality...the punishment? Suffering to Adam and all of his seed...due to the nature of suffering; we adapt to the adversity or create to ease our sufferings...

Creation and destruction is a power associated with gods; it is obvious the Biblical God did not want his creation to have this same power; by commanding them to leave that tree alone...before they ate, they did not comprehend nakedness...after eating they hid their nakedness, pissed off that man and woman now had the same power making them equal...but lacking wisdom of the world and how it functions...they were banished.

The very curious monkeys that we are, cursed with consciousness...are close to unraveling the threads of everything...perhaps some already know...this is a conspiracy site after all so feel free to take a whack at that one.

I think we are all nuts. Well, not all, you have to think that you are sane to actually be nuts. Everyone who thinks they aren't nuts actually are I know I'm a little nuts so I am safe.