Does Unipolar Depression Cause Creativity?

A large consensus of research has noted correlations between mood disorders and creativity, particularly bipolar disorder and depression. The stereotype of the tortured brooding artist carries some credence when it comes to a long history of works of art and music, and sadly, history of tragic lives as well including alcohol and drug abuse and suicide.

Recent literature has correlated bipolar disorder in particular with artistry, given its propensity to cause hyperactive periods of mania in alternation with dark and deep depressive episodes. Some have postulated that the flight of ideas during manic periods and increased energy can lead to productive output of creative work, while others note that it may be the depressive periods in turn that allow coherent reflection on the novel thoughts envisioned during mania. But there has been less focus also on those who suffer from unipolar depression, without the manic periods, who are also still associated with creativity. What are the mechanisms fueling the artistry of those who mainly remain depressed?

A noted 1987 study by Nancy Andreasen, M.D., in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that 80 percent of writers in the famous Iowa Writers’ Workshop had at least one episode of mental illness, either bipolar or unipolar depression, versus 30 percent of a demographically-matched group of nonwriter professionals (although the overall sample was quite small, with 15 in each arm, later expanded to 30 people each). Of this group, 13 of the writers reportedly had bipolar I or II disorder, but also 11 had unipolar depression, which is almost as many. Another article in Scientific American by Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., (a well-known psychologist and writer who also has bipolar disorder) said artists and writers are 20 times as likely to have bipolar disorder and 10 times as likely to have unipolar depression. So unipolar depression definitely has its own particular association with creativity.

Depression would seem on the surface to possibly hamper creative output when it comes to its symptoms of low energy, poor concentration, and loss of interest in things. Yet depression can also be associated with certain cognitive and characterological traits, such as a heightened sensitivity and awareness of aspects of life. These traits may in turn inspire insights and even a propensity to overthinking that could lead to writing and art. Depression also has a complex relationship sometimes with life stressors and even trauma and grief that can lead to an urge for reflection and processing of those events via art. There can also be feelings of isolation and loneliness accompanying depression that lead afflicted individuals towards artistic expression, to feel some outlet for their emotions and to reach out to others via their writing or art. “Only connect,” as the famed writer E.M. Forster said.

Some have postulated that depressive states can shift cognition towards particular details and emotional focus that can lead to negative distorted thoughts but possibly in turn also heightened and novel perspectives. That depressive focus can be detrimental and skewed, like wearing grey-colored glasses, (and is often targeted by therapies such as cognitive-behavioral therapy which tries to help one reframe those automatic negative ideas). But at other times the focus of those grey-colored glasses can highlight darker aspects and genuine truths of the human condition and suffering that non-depressed folks may gloss over or ignore, and these depressed people articulate these deeper truths in their creative work. Also, anxiety, which often accompanies depression, may also fuel a heightened sensitivity to aspects of life and a tendency towards curiosity and rumination that may lead to creative expression.

Overall, the relationship between unipolar depression and creativity is a complex one, and likely a somewhat different process than that seen with bipolar disorder. There seems to be an important survival instinct in people with depression who use the arts to express the thoughts and worries that affect them. The arts reflect an important medium for those people to process and reconnect to the world and other people around them, and make sense of the darkness and loneliness they sometimes feel. We should take the time and effort to listen to those voices or see their imagery, because on the one hand, we could help them feel less alone in their condition and connect to them via literature and art, and on another, we may, in turn, learn more about all of our lives and the human condition.