Creativity and Mental Illness: The Mad Genius in Question

220 Pages·2014·0.699 MB·English

by  Simon Kyaga

Creativity and Mental Illness
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Creativity and Mental
Illness
The Mad Genius in Question
Simon Kyaga
Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
© Simon Kyaga 2015
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Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identifi ed as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2015 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
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ISBN 978–1–137–34580–6
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
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country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kyaga, Simon, 1976–
Creativity and mental illness : the mad genius in question / Simon Kyaga.
pages cm
ISBN 978–1–137–34580–6 (hardback)
1. Genius and mental illness. 2. Creative ability—Psychological aspects.
I. Title.
BF423.K93 2015
153.3'5—dc23 2014023285
Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.
Contents
Tables, Figures and Boxes vi
Preface viii
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations x
1 Introduction 1
2 The History of the Mad Genius 14
3 Early Empirical Studies of Genius 22
4 The Development of Modern Creativity Research 43
5 Biological Perspectives on Creativity 75
6 Contemporary Studies on Creativity and Psychopathology 107
7 Conclusion 176
References 179
Index 205
v
Tables, Figures and Boxes
Tables
3.1 Scale of merit among the men who obtain mathematical
honours at Cambridge 33
5.1 High quality studies on genetics in creativity 84
6.1 Summary of studies investigating psychotic and affective
disorders 109
6.2 Summary of studies primarily investigating
neurodevelopmental disorders 130
6.3 Summary of studies primarily investigating substance use/
abuse disorders 135
6.4 Summary of studies primarily investigating
neurological disorders 138
6.5 Summary of studies investigating other mental disorders 140
Figures
1.1 Study on ~300000 patients demonstrating an increased
occurrence of creative professions in patients with
bipolar disorder (A) and healthy relatives of patients with
schizophrenia (B) and bipolar disorder compared to healthy
controls 5
2.1 Bipolar spectrum 16
4.1 Creativity is suggested to depend on an over-arching general
factor as well as seven domain specific areas of creative
performance 50
4.2 Meta-analysis of personality traits comparing artists
and scientists 68
5.1 Correlations between divergent thinking (BIS score) scores
and thalamic dopamine D2 binding potential 98
5.2 Meta-analysis of 12 studies investigating insight using
functional neuroimaging 100
vi
Tables, Figures and Boxes vii
5.3 Meta-analysis of 34 experiments investigating creativity
using functional neuroimaging 102
Boxes
1.1 History of psychiatric diagnoses 6
1.2 Brief phenomenology of some major psychiatric diagnoses 8
1.3 Psychosis 9
1.4 Neuroimaging and related methods 12
Preface
This book is the result of a common observation among clinicians in
psychiatry, that some of those suffering mental illness are also capable
of remarkable achievements (Becker, 1978, p 658). One of the first
patients I had the opportunity to meet in this context was diagnosed
with bipolar I disorder. He was in a terrible state, struck by symptoms
of depression with melancholic features. His whole person displayed a
complete absence of energy; I found myself incapable of imagining him
as a great entrepreneur. However, on my second visit to him, together
with his wife, I was told that just a few months earlier, in the summer,
he had celebrated his fiftieth birthday on an island in the Swedish archi-
pelago, with hundreds of guests participating. In his usual abundance
of energy, his wife said, he had been able to convince a Swedish fighter
pilot to fly over the island in a show much appreciated by the people
below. As we sat in the small room at the hospital, it was winter and
there was snow falling outside the window. I looked at him and realized
that this was bipolar disorder.
Simon Kyaga
Karolinska Institutet
viii
Acknowledgements
Cover illustration by Dennis Eriksson, Copyright 2014, with permission
from Woo.
Figure 2.2 is reprinted from Journal of Affective Disorders, 100, Hagop S.
Akiskal, Kareen K., ‘In search of Aristotle: Temperament, human nature,
melancholia, creativity and eminence’, 1–6, Copyright 2007, with per-
mission from Elsevier.
Figure 4.1 is reprinted from the Journal of Creative Behavior, 43(2),
Kaufman, J.C., Cole, J.C. and Baer, J., ‘The Construct of Creativity:
Structural Model for Self-Reported Creativity Ratings’, 119–34, Copyright
2009, with permission from John Wiley and Sons.
Figure 4.2 is reprinted from the Personality and Social Psychology Review,
2(4), Gregory J. Feist, ‘A Meta-Analysis of Personality in Scientific and
Artistic Creativity’, 290–309, Copyright 1998, with permission from Sage.
ix