Is there a link between mental illness and creativity?

There does seem to be a link between some forms of mental illness and creativity.

Creativity is about seeing unconventional connections. Neurologists who study attention find that creativity tends to happen not when one is focused in on a problem (which is the way a “normal” brain tends to operate), but when the attention is allowed to roam freely into areas apparently unrelated to the problem. Some mental conditions make it difficult to apply the narrow focus that favors conventional solutions, but it could be that an attention that jumps around will stumble upon more interesting combinations of ideas.

Also, a “normal” brain has a robust reality checking faculty that polices the thought process and disallows whatever doesn’t fit with what “should” be. This reality enforcer is weaker in some forms of mental illness. It’s weaker in the dreaming brain, too, which is why the reality distortion that occurs in dreams doesn’t seem strange while you’re dreaming, but seem obviously impossible once you’re awake. But dreams can be extremely creative as a result.

It all depends on how you view “normal”. Some would describe certain “mental illness” as just alternative ways of seeing the world.

Would you consider someone with synesthesia as mentally ill? Or somewhere on a spectrum?

True mental illness can be an impairment which prevents the full expression of emotion and insight. Is an artist with severe psychosis that creates an alternative universe in their mind but is unable to communicate it truly an artist?

I think it CAN be true because some people’s brains are just wired differently. I think that if someone already has artistic talent bi-polar can put it on steroids, at least that has been my observation of the bipolar people in my life. I don’t know if there is any science to back it up though. Maybe amazing artists just run in my family. Those genes were skipped when I passed through the womb.

If thinking out of the box is crazy, we would be living in caves.

Perhaps the definition of crazy should be reconsidered.

I have Asperger’s and I can write 1600 lines of code in the dead language “Qbasic” but I can’t learn new languages easily. My illness gives me the ability to focus and do things that require concentration, but only certain things. Change is hard for I am a creature of habit.

@talljasperman You’re wired differently but is that crazy? Based on that I’d say no.