Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Links Between Mental Illness And Creativity



Research is also showing that traits associated with different mental illnesses have different effects on creativity. The creativity needed to develop the theory of relativity, is, for example, very different from that required for producing surreal paintings, or poetry.

Research is now homing in on whether the psychosis that is linked to different types of creativity comes through schizophrenia and schizotypy traits, through manic-depressive or cyclothymic traits, or traits associated with the autism and Asperger's disorders. A study at the University of Newcastle found significant differences between artistically creative people and mathematicians. While the artists showed schizotypy traits, mathematicians did not, and that fits in with the idea that mathematics and engineering, which require attention to detail, are closer to the autistic traits than to psychosis.

The two paragraphs above were taken from this most interesting article which helps validate my feelings on the differences between the aesthetics of mathematics and art.

Here is the link to the original source for the paragraphs above.

6 comments:

Sheila said...

Nice to see you over at Plumbline, and thanks for the link to an interesting article on an always fascinating subject.

Kaz Maslanka said...

Thank you Mairi for comming by ... sorry I haven't responded more quickly I have been ill.

Thanks again for comming by
Kaz

Anonymous said...

I'm a huge fan of your ever-fascinating blog and frequently stop by for a read. As a result, I put you in for a "Kreative Blogger Award" on my blog, I hope you don't mind. You're not obliged to pass it along or anything, I just wanted to share your blog with my readers :)

Kaz Maslanka said...

Dear Mnemosyne,
I am honored thank you!
Kaz

Ezra Hilyer said...

Fascinating article, and interesting thought. I have often wondered if I would end up finally leaving the safe confines of normality, and venture into the wide unknown of my mind.
thanks for that link!
:-)
Oh, and thanks for stopping by straypoetry also.
I have added you to my bookmarks :-)

-Ezra

Kaz Maslanka said...

Hi Ezra,
Thanks for dropping by I appreciate your comment! And I enjoyed your site as well.
Kaz

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