Creativity Linked to Mental Disorder Among Some Writers and Creative People
“Great wits are sure to madness near allied.” – John Dryden.
A poet should know; there’s a good reason to believe that certain mental disorders are unusually common among creative writers. Nancy Andreasen, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Iowa Department of Psychiatry, studied thirty faculty members of the university’s Writer’s workshop and found that 80 percent of them had a history of disorders such as depression, compared with 30 percent in a control group of professionals with less creative jobs. Nearly half the writers had also exhibited manic behavior, including insomnia, euphoria and bouts of reckless energy.
Heredity may play a key role. A high proportion of the writers had close relatives who also suffered from similar disorders. More than half were novelists, scientists, or at least pursued somewhat creative professions such as music education. The true relationship between mental disorder and creativity, however remains unclear, says Andreasen, beyond the fact that the anguish of illness (two writers committed suicide during the fifteen years of study) is at times the cost of creation.
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gaby7 | Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
Actually, in my country, a great writer, Okot P’Bitek whose work of poetry still hold high acclaim behaved as if he was really mental. He would sometimes walk bare feet, and yet he was a whole professor! Your article is powerfully written and it truly says alot here-thanks athena!