1. Creativity and
Bipolar Disorder:
A review of the
evidence
Sheri L. Johnson, Ph.D.
Greg Murray, Ph.D.
Eric A. Youngstrom, Ph.D.

2. Kay Jamison (1993).
Touched with Fire.
NY, NY: Free Press.

3. Authors believed to have
manic episodes (from Jamison, 1993)
 Hans Christian Andersen  Joseph Conrad (SA)
 Honore de Balzac  Charles Dickens
 William Faulkner (H)  Isak Dinesen (SA)
 F. Scott Fitzgerald (H)  Ralph Waldo Emerson
 Herman Melville
 Graham Greene  Eugene O'Neill (H, SA)
 Ernest Hemingway (H, S)  Francis Parkman
 Hermann Hesse (H, SA)  John Ruskin (H)
 Henrik Ibsen  Mary Shelley
 Robert Louis Stevenson
 Henry James  August Strindberg
 William James  Leo Tolstoy
 Samuel Clemens (Mark  Tennessee Williams (H)
Twain)  Virginia Woolf (H, S)
 Emile Zola

4. Musicians and composers
believed to have manic episodes
Anton Arensky
Hector Berlioz (SA) Robert Schumann (H, SA)
George Frederic Handel Peter Tchaikovsky
Gustav Holst Irving Berlin (H)
Charles Ives Noel Coward
Gustav Mahler Charles Mingus (H)
Modest Mussorgsky Charles Parker (H, SA)
Sergey Rachmaninoff Cole Porter (H)
Kurt Cobain, musician (Nirvana)
(S 1994)

5. Authors believed to have
mood disorders
William Blake Sylvia Plath (H, S)
George Gordon, Lord Byron Edgar Allan Poe (SA)
Harley Coleridge Ezra Pound (H)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Laura Riding (SA)
Emily Dickinson - more Theodore Roethke (H)
T.S. Eliot (H) Percy Bysshe Shelley
Victor Hugo - More (SA)
Samuel Johnson Alfred Lord tennyson
John Keats - More Walt Whitman - More
Robert Lowell (H)
Edna St. Vincent Millay (H)

6. Artists believed to have
bipolar disorder
Paul Gauguin (SA)
Vincent van Gogh (H, S)
Arshile Gorky (S)
Edvard Munch (H)
Georgia O'Keeffe (H)
Jackson Pollock (H)
Mark Rothko (S)

12. Conclusion 1:
Many famous artists
have bipolar disorder.

14. Does the
pattern hold
up with
research?

15. Bipolar disorder
Diagnosis
Family
history
Subsyndromal
Other related traits:
symptoms mania
positive affectivity
and motivation

16. Creativity
Creative Evidence of creative
accomplishment thought: divergent
eminence thinking and loose
associations
Engagement in
creative activities

17. Creativity
Bipolar
Disorder

18. Biographical studies of
famous artists
Study Sample Rates of mania
Ludwig, 1992 1005 recognized artists, 8.2% had some history
writers, actors of mania, compared to
2.8% of non-artists
Wills, 2003 40 famous Jazz Bepop 28.5% some form of
musicians mood disorder
Czeizel, 2001 Famous Hungarian 67.5% had some form of
poets bipolar disorder
Jamison, 1989 47 British 18th century 26% elated moods, 6.5%
writers treated for mania
Juda, 1994 113 highly creative No diagnosable bipolar
artists disorder, but 22% of
offspring had bipolar
spectrum traits

19. Problem
 Biographies might be biased…

20. Iowa Writers Workshop
(Andreasen)
Highly prestigious writers’ workshop
43% met criteria for some form of
mania:
30% bipolar II disorder
13% bipolar I disorder

21. Bipolar Disorder relates to
creative eminence
 Problem:
 Eminence and fame might relate to social and
personal resources other than creativity.

22. What about samples
that aren’t famous and eminent?
Studies of artistic samples
Akiskal (2005) Artists and those in non- 43% of artists endorsed
artistic occupations cyclothymic traits,
compared to about 10%
of controls
Colvin (1995) 40 conservatory GBI mania and
students; 40 students in cyclothymia scores were
non-creative areas higher among the
conservatory students

23. Conclusion 2.
AMONG CREATIVE
PEOPLE,
MILD FORMS OF
BIPOLAR DISORDER
ARE OVER-
REPRESENTED.

24. A different sampling approach
AMONG THOSE
WITH BIPOLAR
DISORDER, HOW
MANY ARE
CREATIVE?

25. Preferences for Complex
Stimuli—a marker of creativity
Study Sample Findings
Santosa et al., 2007 Diagnosed with bipolar +
disorder
Simeonova, Chang, Diagnosed with bipolar +
Strong, & Ketter, 2005 disorder
Strong et al., Diagnosed with bipolar +
disorder
Simeonova, Chang, Offspring of those +
Strong, & Ketter, 2005 diagnosed with bipolar
disorder
Rawlings & Georgiou, Students at risk for +
2004 mania
Schuldberg, 2001 Students at risk for +
mania

26. Conclusion 3.
MANY PEOPLE
WITH SOME
FORM OF
BIPOLAR
DISORDER
PREFER
CREATIVE
STIMULI.

27. If people prefer complex stimuli,
DOES THAT GET
EXPRESSED IN
CREATIVE
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
AND PURSUITS?

28. Among those with BP,
how common is it to be an artist?
Tremblay et al. (2010) 13,700 participants in Creativity ratings of
the ECA study (84 with occupations were higher
DSM-IIIR diagnosis of among those with
bipolar I disorder) bipolar disorder(4.54)
than those without
bipolar disorder (3.07)

29. Lifetime accomplishment
(Richards et al, 1988)

30. Conclusion 4.
CREATIVE
PURSUITS AND
ACCOMPLISHMENT
ARE ENHANCED
AMONG THOSE
WITH MILDER
FORMS OF
BIPOLAR
DISORDER.
Carrie McGrath

31. Self-Ratings of Creativity
Study Sample Findings
Furnham et al. (1988) Students at risk for mania +
Schuldberg, 2001 Students at risk for mania +
Shapiro & Weisberg, 1999 Students at risk for mania +
Frantom et al., 1999 Risk for mania among No effect
graduate students and
faculty studying art
Frantom et al., 1999, Family history of mania +
second analysis
Santosa et al., 2007 People diagnosed with No effect
bipolar disorder

32. Conclusion 5.
THOSE WITH
MILDER FORMS
OF BIPOLAR
DISORDER SEE
THEMSELVES
AS CREATIVE.

33. Creative persons?
Creativity paradigm Bipolar I Bipolar Family Risk for
disorder spectrum members mania
Biographical studies of + + +
eminence
Interview studies of famously + + +
creative persons
Lifetime creative - + +
accomplishment
Occupational choice + + +
Preference for complex + + + +
(creative) stimuli
People with bipolar disorder are to be likely to be creative.
Particularly true for milder and at-risk variants.

34. Question:
WHAT ADVANTAGES OF
BIPOLAR DISORDER FUEL
CREATIVITY?

35. Measures of Divergent
Thinking
Study Sample Findings Score
Card
Furnham et al., Students at risk for Higher scores on the +
2008 mania Unusual Uses Test
Santosa et al., Diagnosed with No differences from controls -
2007 bipolar disorder on the Torrance verbal or
nonverbal creativity subtests
Dickstein et al., Diagnosed with Poor performance on -
2007 bipolar disorder attentional set-shifting
Pine et al. Children diagnosed Poor performance on -
with bipolar attentional set-shifting
disorder

36. Conclusion.
CREATIVE THOUGHT IS OBSERVED IN
THOSE AT RISK FOR THE DISORDER, BUT
NOT WITHIN BIPOLAR I DISORDER– AT
LEAST WITHOUT CONSIDERING MOOD.

37. Measures of Divergent Thinking
And Mania
Study Sample + Findings
Levine et al., 1996 11 persons hospitalized for Persons who were manic
mania compared to groups with were more fluent– they
schizophrenia, schizoaffective provided 25 word
disorder, depression, and associations compared to
healthy controls 12 in the other groups
Henry et al., 1971 Persons with bipolar disorder Fluency (word
tested during manic and associations) tripled
asymptomatic periods during mania
Kocsis et al., 1993 Persons with bipolar disorder Fluency was higher when
before and after lithium people stopped lithium
discontinuation
Shaw et al., 1997 Persons with bipolar disorder Fluency was higher when
before and after lithium people stopped lithium
discontinuation
Andreasen & Persons hospitalized for mania Creative and manic
Powers, 1975 compared to those with persons had high scores
schizophrenia, and a highly on a conceptual over-
creative control sample inclusiveness scale

38. Measures of Divergent Thinking
And Mania
Study Sample + Findings - Findings
Levine et al., 1996 11 persons hospitalized for Persons who were manic
mania compared to groups with were more fluent– they
schizophrenia, schizoaffective provided 25 word
disorder, depression, and associations compared to
healthy controls 12 in the other groups
Henry et al., 1971 Persons with bipolar disorder Fluency (word The greater fluency was
tested during manic and associations) tripled entirely due to “incorrect”
asymptomatic periods during mania associations
Kocsis et al., 1993 Persons with bipolar disorder Fluency was higher when
before and after lithium people stopped lithium
discontinuation
Shaw et al., 1997 Persons with bipolar disorder Fluency was higher when
before and after lithium people stopped lithium
discontinuation
Andreasen & Persons hospitalized for mania Creative and manic The broad
Powers, 1975 compared to those with persons had high scores categorizations made by
schizophrenia, and a highly on a conceptual over- the bipolar group were
creative control sample inclusiveness scale largely errors.

39. Conclusion.
FLUENCY IS HIGH DURING
MANIA,
…BUT SO ARE ERRORS.

40. Could milder mood changes
be more beneficial?
 In interviews with eminent artists,
 high moods, energy, and less need for sleep
contribute to mania,
 other symptoms were not seen as helpful
 Jamison (1989)
 Energy, enthusiasm, and less need for sleep on
the GBI correlate with self-rated creativity
 Other symptoms did not
 Shapiro & Weisberg (1999)

41. Summary
 Substantial evidence: bipolar disorder is
related to being a “creative person.”
 Particularly true of milder forms of bipolar
disorder, and even vulnerability to the
disorder.

42. Summary
 Less is known about the “creative process”
that supports this pattern.
 Some early evidence suggests that mood
plays a role.
 Moods that are too high might interfere with
creative accomplishments.
 Happiness might bolster fluency and
divergent thinking.

43. Questions?
Thoughts?