Creativity and psychopathology: are there similar mental processes involved in creativity and in psychosis-proneness?

Frontiers in Psychology

Andreas Fink¹ 

关键词: creativity;    psychopathology;    cognitive control;    schizotypy;    originality;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01211

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The putative link between creativity and psychopathology is nearly as legendary and mysterious as the long-standing view from antique mythology according to which eminent creative achievements were perceived as the result of a “higher power,” mostly caused by inspiration by muses. In fact, there are many illustrative examples of creative people who suffer(ed) from serious mental disorders, leading some authors to the notion that “… madness may be the price for possessing one of the most sublime human gifts” (Barrantes-Vidal, 2004, p. 59). Within the scientific domain, literature reviews came to quite different conclusions, assuming no, only a weak or even a strong association between creativity and psychopathology (Barrantes-Vidal, 2014, p. 170), ranking this topic into the most controversially discussed issues in the field of creativity. Nevertheless, there appears to be some consensus that at least less severe manifestations of psychopathology are associated with creativity (e.g., Barrantes-Vidal, 2004; Claridge and Blakey, 2009; Nelson and Rawlings, 2010). As we will briefly indicate in the following, especially people who are prone to psychosis (characterized in its most severe manifestation by e.g., delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thought, negative symptoms; see e.g., Heckers et al., 2013, for a review of the domains of psychopathology that define psychosis) have been found to show elevated levels of creativity.

【 授权许可】

CC BY