Creativity and Mental Illness

A number of creative people in the arts have been reliably diagnosed as having bipolar disorder (formerly manic depressive illness) such as writers Ernest Hemingway, Robert Lowell, Theodore Roethke, and Virginia Woolf, composers Robert Schumann and Hugo Wolf, artists Jackson Pollock, probably Vincent Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and Arshille Gorky, and actors Vivian Leigh, Dick Van Dyke, and Jason Robards.

To know that such highly valued achievement is possible should therefore be encouraging for people suffering from the disorder and, as some have argued, might even help dispel some of the heavy stigma connected with mental illness in general. On the other hand, it has been alleged that the illness makes creative persons more sensitive because of depressive diatheses and productivity while undergoing manic episodes. These allegations represent a romantic notion about creativity—the saga of the suffering artist—with little evidence to support them.

Classical comedians such as Jackie Gleason and Dick Van Dyke have seemed to derive direct benefit in their work from manic and hypomanic tendencies. Artistic products containing depressive or manic flight of ideas content have, only at particular times in history, been of social and aesthetic interest. Despite the erroneous emphasis on the advantages of bipolar illness, its presence and effects among highly creative persons are of medical and social importance. For instance, several of the eminent creators I mentioned—Schumann, Woolf, Hemingway, Van Gogh, Gorky, Pollock—reached premature deaths through suicide or preventable accident, at a great loss to society. Mental suffering and debilitation are intrinsic factors in such illness and appropriate treatment and treatment approaches are required. Such treatments and approaches, however, are a challenge requiring knowledge of creativity and the creative processes in conjunction with the course and permutations of the disorder.

Moreover, it is important to emphasize that creativity is something all prize very highly. A special issue of the New York Times Magazine on the next millennium in a feature article has asked, "What separates humans from animals and ever more advanced machines?" and triumphantly gives the answer: "We make art." The production of art, literature, music of all types, dance, motion pictures, great inventions, scientific discoveries, political breakthroughs, and exceptional business enterprise all are due in large degree to creativity. Creative people are admired and prized, and creative achievement is widely appreciated. The creative process inspires awe and is sometimes considered virtually miraculous—many even believe it to be totally mysterious.

Therefore, when we consider all levels of creativity, from everyday creativity in living, cooking, spare time painting and writing all the way to the achievements of Einstein and Shakespeare, we shall be focused on a highly valued albeit complicated and challenging process.