This document discusses the relationship between creativity and mental health. It notes that many creative people exhibit traits associated with mental disorders like psychosis or anxiety. Experts comment that certain mental processes linked to conditions like psychosis may contribute to artistic creativity. The document also cautions that gifted children are sometimes misdiagnosed with conditions like ADHD when they may simply think differently. Overall, it explores the idea that aspects of mental illness and neurodivergence may be linked to creative talents.

1. Creative People:
Personality
and
Mental Health
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2. Director Tim Burton:
"I’ve always been blessed with
being easily ignored or
avoided. I think maybe it’s
because people think I look a
little crazy.”
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3. HuffPost Live program:
"A Brilliant Sacrifice"
[October 24, 2012]
Program description:
“A new study confirms that
certain mental disorders are
linked to creative genius."
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4. Judith Schlesinger, PhD notes
the widely-circulated Swedish
study [by the Karolinska
Institute] mentioned in the
program has "significant issues"
in terms of scientific validity.
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5. Cognitive psychologist Scott
Barry Kaufman comments,
“I do believe that if the mental
processes associated with
psychosis were evaporated
entirely from this world, art
would suck..."
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6. 6

7. Musician Sting: “Do I have to be
in pain to write? I thought so, as
most of my contemporaries did;
you had to be the struggling
artist, the tortured, painful,
poetic wreck."
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8. In his article Mis-Diagnosis and Dual
Diagnosis of Gifted Children (and his
related book), James T. Webb, Ph.D. notes,
“Many gifted and talented children (and
adults) are being mis-diagnosed by
psychologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians,
and other health care professionals” as
having ADHD, OCD, Mood Disorders and
other conditions.
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9. Creativity coach Eric Maisel notes: “Only
a small percentage of creative people
work as often or as deeply as, by all
rights, they might be expected to work.
“What stops them? Anxiety or some face
of anxiety like doubt, worry, or fear..."
[Photo: Nicolas Cage in "Adaptation"]
See related notes, articles and other resources at:
Creative People: Personality and Mental Health
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