Fractured by Dan Harris

FRACTURED creativity and mental illness.

DAN HARRIS GRAPHIC DESIGN 2012

creativity and mental illness

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Rules are made to be

BROKEN

or does this mean creatives are mental? Creativity is uncomfortable. It is creative people’s dissatisfaction with the present that drives them on to make changes. Creative people, like those with psychotic illnesses,tend to see the world differently to most. It’s like looking at a shattered mirror. They see the world in a fractured way. Creativity is certainly about not being constrained by rules or accepting the restrictions that society places on us. Of course the more people break the rules, the more likely they are to be perceived as ‘mentally ill’.

Broken Rules

Fragmented glass shattered symbolising a fractured “outside the box” mentality.

Creativity often goes hand-in-hand with mental illness, such as schizophrenia. Now scientists think they know why: The brain responds differently to the “feel good” chemical dopamine in both schizophrenics and the highly creative, a new study suggests. The results showed similarities between the brains in healthy, highly creative people and those with schizophrenia. The findings suggest that creative types might not be able to filter information in their heads as well as “normal” folks, leaving them better able to make novel connections and generate unique ideas. “Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box,” said study researcher Fredrik Ullén, of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Studies have found that creative skills are more common in people who have mental illness in their families, and are associated with a higher risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Also, certain psychological traits, such as the ability to make unusual or bizarre associations are shared by schizophrenics and healthy, highly creative people. Some research has also found an association between creative abilities and the brain’s dopamine system — the network of neurons set up to respond to dopamine. (Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that, amongst other things, is involved in the reward response to everything from chocolate to cocaine.) However, the mechanism behind the dopamine-creativity link was largely a mystery.

“It’s like looking at a

shattered mirror.” Ullén and his colleagues administered psychological tests to 14 participants with no history of mental illness. The tests were designed to measure creativity, asking the subjects to find many different solutions to a problem. Those who did well on this test, and were deemed “highly creative,” had a lower density of specific receptors in their brains for dopamine, called D2 receptors, in a region called the thalamus, than did less creative people, according to Ullén. “Schizophrenics are also known to have low D2 density in this part of the brain, suggesting a cause of the link between mental illness and creativity,” he said. The thalamus serves as a kind of relay center, filtering information before it reaches areas of the cortex, which is responsible, amongst other things, for cognition and reasoning. “Fewer D2 receptors in the thalamus probably means a lower degree of signal filtering, and thus a higher flow of information from the thalamus,” Ullén said, and explains that this could a possible mechanism behind the ability of healthy highly creative people to see numerous uncommon connections in a problem-solving situation and the bizarre associations found in the mentally ill.

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creativity and mental illness

50% Creativity is akin to insanity, say scientists who have been studying how the mind works. Brain scans reveal striking similarities in the thought pathways of highly creative people and those with schizophrenia. Both groups lack important receptors used to filter and direct thought. It could be this uninhibited processing that allows creative people to “think outside the box”, say experts from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute. In some people, it leads to mental illness. But rather than a clear division, experts suspect a continuum, with some people having psychotic traits but few negative symptoms. Some of the world’s leading artists, writers and theorists have also had mental illnesses - the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and American mathematician John Nash (portrayed by Russell Crowe in the film A Beautiful Mind) to name just two. Creativity is known to be associated with an increased risk of depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Similarly, people who have mental illness in their family have a higher chance of being creative. Associate Professor Fredrik Ullen believes his findings could help explain why. He looked at the brain’s dopamine (D2) receptor genes which experts believe govern divergent thought. He found highly creative people who did well on tests of divergent thought had a lower than expected density of D2 receptors in the thalamus - as do people with schizophrenia. The thalamus serves as a relay centre, filtering information before it reaches areas of the cortex, which is responsible, amongst other things, for cognition and reasoning. “Fewer D2 receptors in the thalamus probably means a lower degree of signal filtering, and thus a higher flow of information from the thalamus,” said Professor Ullen. He believes it is this barrage of uncensored information that ignites the creative spark. This would explain how highly creative people manage to see unusual connections in problem-solving situations that other people miss. Schizophrenics share this same ability to make novel associations. But in schizophrenia, it results in bizarre and disturbing thoughts.

of creatives have similarities to mental illness. UK psychologist and member of the British Psychological Society Mark Millard said the overlap with mental illness might explain the motivation and determination creative people share. “Creativity is uncomfortable. It is their dissatisfaction with the present that drives them on to make changes. “Creative people, like those with psychotic illnesses, tend to see the world differently to most. It’s like looking at a shattered mirror. They see the world in a fractured way. “There is no sense of conventional limitations and you can seethis in their work. Take Salvador Dali, for example. He certainly saw the world differently and behaved in a way that some people perceived as very odd.”

“Creativity is certainly about not being constrained by rules.” He said businesses have already recognised and capitalised on this knowledge. Some companies have “skunk works” - secure, secret laboratories for their highly creative staff where they can freely experiment without disrupting the daily business. Chartered psychologist Gary Fitzgibbon says an ability to “suspend disbelief” is one way of looking at creativity. “When you suspend disbelief you are prepared to believe anything and this opens up the scope for seeing more possibilities. “Creativity is certainly about not being constrained by rules or accepting the restrictions that society places on us. Of course the more people break the rules, the more likely they are to be perceived as ‘mentally ill’.” He works as an executive coach helping people to be more creative in their problem solving behaviour and thinking styles. “The result is typically a significant rise in their well being, so as opposed to creativity being associated with mental illness it becomes associated with good mental health.”

Mental Illness Similarities

creativity and mental illness

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creativity and mental illness

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Schizophrenia Bipolar Depression Pencils relative to the different mental disorders potentially suffered by creatives.

TheWhat doStudies. they show? Individuals who work in creative fields are diagnosed and treated with a mental illness more frequently than the general public, showing an important link between writing and schizophrenia. The finding came from a team of experts at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. Their extensive research on the Swedish registry is currently the most inclusive in its area. Research conducted by the team in 2011 indicated that bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are more prevalent in families consisting of artists and scientists compared to the society at large. They demonstrated that the dopamine system in healthy, creative individuals is fairly similar to that seen in people with schizophrenia. The aim of the current study was to determine whether more psychiatric diagnoses, such as depression, alcohol and drug abuse, schizoaffective disorder, autism, ADHD, anxiety syndrome, anorexia nervosa, and suicide, were linked with creativity as well. Since their prior trials consisted of hospital patients only, this time they included people in outpatient care..

The Studies

Healthy

Nearly 1.2 million patients and their family members (down to second-cousins) were examined for the current study. All subjects were compared with healthy controls, Swedish residents from the most recent decades. The information could not be associated to anyone studied because the data was anonymized. Researchers have suggested a link between creativity and mental illness. Analysis provided evidence for the researchersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; prior report, that bipolar disorder is more common in all individuals with artistic or scientific jobs, including researchers, dancers, photographers, and authors. The majority of the other psychiatric diseases, such as depression, anxiety syndrome, schizophrenia, and substance abuse, were more prevalent among authors in particular. They also had a 50% higher chance of committing suicide compared to the general public. The family members of those with bipolar disorder, anorexia nervosa schizophrenia, and, to a certain level, autism, had jobs that required creativity more commonly than the general population.

Mimicked

Probable

Maybe

Highly Probable

â&#x20AC;&#x153;bipolar disorder is more common in all

individuals with artistic or scientific jobs.â&#x20AC;?

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1,173,763.

creativity and mental illness

Patients diagnosed with psychiatric disorders. Half of which had suffered from depression.

Creativity has often been linked to qualities such as “nervous tension”, depression and use of alcohol and drugs. However, there is the idea that creativity, in general is also linked to diagnosed mental disorders.

“the idea of what stands as

The only psychiatric condition they found to be associated with a creative occupation was bipolar disorder, and the only specific creative profession scientists linked to psychiatric problems is mainly writing.

It is difficult to conclude much about cause and effect from this publication. Does being a writer, for example, lead to psychiatric problems? Or, do mental health problems result in people trying to express their inner feelings in a creative way?

creative may not be the

same as everyone elses”

Scientific occupations were said to include those conducting research and teaching at university, but beyond authors, no more expansion is given on what was considered to be an artistic occupation (for example, painting, singing, dancing, and acting were not mentioned). Consequently, the idea of what stands as ‘creative’ may not be the same as everyone elses.

Definitions of “creativity” are always difficult, and this research relied on peoples’ occupations, including that of academic research, as a proxy for creativity. The researchers considered ‘creative professions’ as scientific and artistic occupations.

Diagnosed Patients

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