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Creativity Linked to Mental Illness, Study Confirms
Live Science ^ | 16 October 2012 | LiveScience Staff

Posted on 10/17/2012 4:33:24 PM PDT by Paradox

Creative types are thought to be more likely to suffer from mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. A new large-scale study of the Swedish population helps confirm this link.

Last year, researchers at the Karolinska Institutet near Stockholm found that families with a history of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia were more likely to produce artists and scientists. They built on this evidence in a new study, published this month in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, which covers a larger population sample and a wider scope of psychiatric diagnoses...

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: creativity; depression; mentalillness; suicide
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To: rmlew

Maybe i’ll get a map lol could have sworn sweden was a socialist doper country too thought i read it somewhere or maybe i seen it on some obscure tv special ...


21 posted on 10/17/2012 5:37:23 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK (Any man may make a mistake ; none but a fool will persist in it . { Latin proverb })
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To: Paradox

So that’s why homosexuals are so artsy and creative...


22 posted on 10/17/2012 5:41:09 PM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed &water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS, NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: Paradox

I thought that I had a very creative painting, but then Bob, one of the voices in my head, said he didn’t like it. Steve, another voice in my head, said he’d pay $100 for the painting, so I sold it to him. Bob said Steve was crazy for buying my painting, so we told him he had to buy us a round. He said, “No way! Steve seems to be loaded.” So we went to go to McGintys, you know McGintys.....nice little place down on Elm Street. Joe is the bartender there. It’s a wonderful place. Bob and Steve can talk to a lot of people there. Ohhh, we while away the afternoons discussing politics and fashion and gardening. Mrs. Jessup said she had raised a three pound rutabaga. Steve scoffed at her and said that nobody in this part of the country could grow a rutabaga larger than two pounds. Well, Mrs. Jessup marched right out the door and came back 30 minutes later and threw a rutabaga on the table. “Now, do you believe me?”, she asked. Steve had gone to use the facilities, so Bob and I inquired about her plant. “That looks like a Spanish rutabaga”, opined Bob. “What’s the difference?, asked Mrs. Jessup. “Spanish rutabagas are sweeter and have more fiber”, replied Bob. “I don’t think you know your donkey from a Spanish rutabaga”, said Mrs. Jessup. I ordered a Harvey Wallbanger for Mrs. Jessup and that seemed to defuse a possibly nasty situation.


23 posted on 10/17/2012 5:48:51 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: luckystarmom

IDK. IMHO the less stress in the vunerable’s life the better. College away, not such a good idea, six years taking creative courses for a four year degree, much better.


24 posted on 10/17/2012 5:48:58 PM PDT by Chickensoup (STOP The Great O-ppression)
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To: huldah1776

Yoga is actually highly recommended for dystonia! Her physical therapist will be teaching her a lot of body awareness. If she can play flute again, she’ll be learning the Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais method of body mapping while playing.

We’ve slowed her down academically. Screw the fast paced high school life. She is not in honors classes anymore, and she is taking math online. She loves taking the online class!


25 posted on 10/17/2012 6:06:02 PM PDT by luckystarmom
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To: Paradox

If you lead a relatively unremarkable, normal, stable, happy life there is little to compel or even drive you to express yourself creatively in a way that is striking and thought provoking to other relatively unremarkable, normal, stable, happy people. It would seem, well, ordinary. And, for the vast majority, that is not a bad thing.

An unusual way of looking at the world expressed in a visual way through painting, sculpture or photography is going to come from a person who is at least a little unusual, whether or not this unusualness is outwardly obvious or more inward and subtle.

What’s even more unusual is the drive to even start seriously pursuing an independent, long term creative endeavor, let alone continue on in the face of little to no reward, financially or critically.

This requires a degree of drive and compulsion that, when combined with an already unusual visual, musical or literary take on things, leads to favoring people who are unusual in clinical terms.

I’m not talking about dabblers or hobbyists, here, obviously. These same factors are at work with highly inventive, driven scientists as well.

Crazy artists, mad scientists, the stereotype didn’t stick because it was inaccurate. There’s at least a grain of truth to it.


26 posted on 10/17/2012 6:12:20 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: Paradox

Total Bull Crap!

THE most creative people are not mentally ill, they have all their faculties well focused on problems that need solving, and they come up with creative ways to 'make it happen.'

This is just more drivel from our corrupt, lying 'scientist' community - the same one's that claim we suffer from global warming - while real science proves there is absolutely none.

27 posted on 10/17/2012 6:29:52 PM PDT by Ron C.
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To: Ellendra
Interesting that scientists are included with artists.

Those 2 traits often go together and frequently are associated with left handedness.

28 posted on 10/17/2012 6:49:58 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Makes sense to me, I’ve got both traits. But I guess I was remembering back in high school there was a clear segregation between the two. People who couldn’t cut it academically were nudged toward the art classes, people who were good at math and science were labelled “geeks” and told not to waste their time with art. I got weird looks from both groups, because I can’t pick up on boundaries like that unless they’re spelled out for me. It wasn’t until the end of senior year that someone told me I wasn’t supposed to enjoy my pottery class because I was too good at math and science.

Then again, I sometimes think I fit the stereotype of the mad scientist :p


29 posted on 10/17/2012 7:08:47 PM PDT by Ellendra (http://www.ustrendy.com/ellendra-nauriel/portfolio/18423/concealed-couture/)
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To: Paradox

Artists and atheist scientists? Dems.


30 posted on 10/17/2012 7:10:59 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: Chickensoup

Explains Hollywierd and the rest of the entertainment industry.


31 posted on 10/17/2012 7:12:20 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: Paradox

What’s the name of Captain Obvious in Sweden?


32 posted on 10/17/2012 7:12:40 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
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To: Revolting cat!

Kaptenen Uppenbart!


33 posted on 10/17/2012 7:15:05 PM PDT by Paradox (I want Obama defeated. Period.)
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To: Ellendra

Are you left handed too? As the wife of a lefty and the mother of a lefty (both creative engineers)I’ve come to the conclusion that lefties and righties don’t think alike.

I belonged to a quilting guild at one time, and I noticed that when we were all seated at a frame together, the lefties had to be at the end, of course. I also noticed that the lefties in the group were some of our most creative sewers. They had all figured out clever shortcuts to accomplish piecing that was difficult to accomplish in the traditional way. These were methods that my right handed brain had to really struggle to copy. But, I found I could do them easily if I followed their directions step by step.

So, it dawned on me why my husband and I could never agree on how to accomplish a task. We are thinking about it from the opposite direction. So, I went home and announced to my son (who was studying for his doctorate in engineering) that he should look for a left handed woman to marry because she would be easier to get along with.

He just rolled his eyes at me and said, “I don’t want to marry another engineer, and you wouldn’t want me to bring home an ARTIST, would you?” He’s happily married and expecting his 5th child. At least 3 of those kids are lefties too!

And my husband’s left handed sister taught pottery for years.


34 posted on 10/17/2012 8:29:19 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Ambidextrous. My handwriting is better with my right hand, but I think that’s mostly a matter of practice.


35 posted on 10/17/2012 8:44:17 PM PDT by Ellendra (http://www.ustrendy.com/ellendra-nauriel/portfolio/18423/concealed-couture/)
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To: Ron C.

I agree! This is laughable, as is most of the studies of this nature - I think maybe those who ‘study’ this crap are
ones who are unbalanced.

I know far too many creative people who make a living using their gifts, nothing remotely wrong with them.


36 posted on 10/17/2012 9:10:19 PM PDT by AllAmericanGirl44 (Fluck this adminstration of misfits.)
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To: Ellendra
Ambidextrous.

You clever girl. You are well balanced! I think that the reason that many lefties are so clever about figuring out methods for accomplishing things (like intricate sewing -- or my husband's inventions) is because they are raised in a world where most tools are made for right handed people.

My PhD level engineer son was not recommended for advancement to a regular 1st grade because he failed some "test" devised by his kindergarten teacher. When I inquired about this "test", I was told it was because he couldn't cut out a circle with scissors. I asked if he had right handed scissors, or left handed scissors. You know the answer.

There were 12 boys who were recommended to go to a special 1st grade where they wouldn't be taught to read in the normal time frame. Guess what? 11 of the 12 were left handed boys! Mine was sent to Catholic school where Sr. Julianne had him reading the San Francisco Chronicle by Christmas. In the spring of the year he won the Science Fair for the whole school.

37 posted on 10/18/2012 4:16:51 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: Fester Chugabrew
Let their creativity serve. It’s okay. But keep them away from the public treasury...

and schoolchildren.

38 posted on 10/18/2012 8:00:09 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: Vince Ferrer

I’ve noted this same phenomenon in high IQ individuals. The further up the chart they are the less stable they seem.


39 posted on 10/19/2012 3:22:42 AM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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