TheaThere’s a guy in my head, and all he wants to do is lay in bed all day long, smoke pot, and watch old movies and cartoons. My life is a series of stratagems, to avoid, and outwit that guy.
Anthony Bourdain, celebrity chef and author
All of the good poets are not in their right mind when they make beautiful songs.
Plato
The “tortured artist.”
The idea that you must be half, if not fully, mad. Driven by dark forces–by mental illness. The romanticization of pain for beauty’s sake.
A particularly sticky trope.
And just look at the evidence, art enthusiasts say, that the tortured artist is more than just a stock character or stereotype. Vincent Van Gogh, known as the “mad artist,” cut off his ear when his illness reared its ugly head. His most anguished and most productive periods often came in tandem. Beethoven, the crowner of classical music with manic and reclusive tendencies, dunked his head in cold water before composing to stay awake. Edvard Munch painted The Scream to represent the ghosts that had tormented him throughout his life. Sylvia Plath wrote poetry and stories, haunting and visceral, that reflected her internal struggles preceding her suicide. Ernest Hemingway. Edgar Allen Poe. Virginia Woolf …
Clearly, some of the greatest creatives in recorded history suffered from the ravages of their minds.
Are these exceptions or the rule?
The Prescribed Curse
Depicts Kahlo’s feelings of hopelessness regarding her health and her belief that her destiny is to suffer
Depicts Van Gogh’s feelings of isolation, his own detention in a mental hospital, and the cyclical nature of his mental illness
Originally entitled Love and Pain, but most well-known today as Vampire, though the root of the latter motif did not come from Munch
First, what is the curse prescribed to the creative?
It’s never enough. Their passion consumes them, and they too are insatiable.
No accolade, no round of applause, no credits rolling, nor curtains dropping, nor “the end” typed on the last page will ever be enough.
For the true creative, money is never the ultimate goal. Creating something of the utmost quality and aesthetic beauty is. It just happens that the aesthetic value of a creative product often hinges on its monetary value to society. Thus, they chase the validation that tells them their sacrifice is worth something.
They ask themselves: What does it mean to surrender to a passion until it consumes you? What is the price of admission for creating a work of undeniable art? What does it mean to give up everything—family, life, happiness, sanity—in pursuit of the most beautiful?
It is only when you fixate on an aspect of life or beauty for so long that the darkness underneath reveals itself and you can discover what everyone else missed.
For the true artists, the price is unavoidable. Peace of mind cannot be attained without creating. Peace of mind cannot be attained when creating. They either die for their art or live without purpose. Neither option is particularly pleasant, but such is the nature of the game, right?
So, what are these tortured artists to do? They’re meant to embrace madness, go off their medication, become obsessed because it is the only way to create. They’re meant to accept that the price of admission to create true art might be their life.
To be clear, this encapsulates the idea of the creative curse—the profile of the quintessential archetype, if you will. Perhaps it is accurate some of the time.
The Actual Curse
The overwhelming probability is that you will fail, but a small portion of creative people succeed spectacularly. So, it’s like a lottery in some sense. You’re probably gonna lose, but If you don’t lose, you could win big.
Jordan Peterson, psychologist, author and media commentator
Let’s profile a creative in terms of generalized personality and the scientific literature.
The trait of creativity is a subset of the trait openness, or openness to experience, a component of the Big Five. From openness branches imagination, artistic interests, emotionality, adventurousness, intellect and liberalism.
Since creativity is widely acknowledged as a facet of personality, stating that everyone is creative is akin to claiming that everyone is introverted, which is inaccurate.
The creative is attracted to the complex and drawn to aestheticism. They are open, crave experience and have many interests. Creatives prefer to exist on the cutting edge, on the open frontier, in the unexplored crevices of the world. They seek novelty. They have visions of potential where others see a barren wasteland.
The creative, however, can seek shiny new objects to their peril, never settling, never mastering, always moving, always dreaming. They are like Alice getting lost in the rabbit hole, but instead of one proverbial rabbit hole, there are dozens. This type of creative lives a door down from the procrastinating perfectionist.
Given the traits of the creative, the more feasible curse than an early death is not getting anything in return for their toils.
A life dedicated to creative pursuits will likely not bring success and money. Only the vast minority find a way to do so. Not every creative can produce works that fully satisfy the two components of productive creativity: utility and originality. They run the risk of the world never seeing their work as valuable. Even with extreme talent and skill, chances of success are still low. Like Edgar Allen Poe, some creatives can dedicate their whole lives to their craft with no reward, only seeing success posthumously after living *tortured* lives.
Even after a creative has successfully developed a novel product, they can find the monetization process challenging. It demands a marketing strategy, customer support, gathering feedback, and numerous other tasks essential for generating sales. Often, these roles don’t align with the skill set of a creative personality type. However, when a creative also embodies traits of a productive innovator and high conscientiousness, they become an unstoppable force, as exemplified by figures like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Leonardo da Vinci.
Given the negatives, one might decide they do not want to be creative. However, this too would result in anguish. Especially someone who ranks high in the trait openness may always feel something integral missing. As Jordan Peterson has noted in a lecture, asking a true creative not to be creative is like asking an extrovert to not be social. Even worse, if they allow their creativity to atrophy only to try and unearth it one day down the line, they could have a deep craving they simply don’t have the skill or expertise to satisfy anymore.
While most creatives do not suffer dramatically from their own minds, plenty of studies reveal the connection between mental illness and creative thought.
Creativity and Psychopathology
Studies point to associations between certain mood disorders, specifically major depression and bipolar, and creativity. However, having a mood disorder does not automatically enhance artistic ability. In other words, being creative might make you more prone to having a mood disorder, but having a mood disorder doesn’t necessarily mean you’re more creative.
Often, the lifestyles high-level creatives lead cause depressive symptoms, not being creative in and of itself.
One study examined the link between creative professions and psychiatric conditions. It found that, except for bipolar disorder, most creative professions weren’t more likely than others to experience psychiatric conditions. However, writers stood out—they were more prone to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and suicide. Interestingly, the study found dancers, visual artists and directors were less likely to suffer from mental illness.
Another study titled Creativity and schizotypy from the neuroscience perspective found an overlap in cognitive features between creative and psychotic processes. In other words, creative thoughts exhibit brain activity akin to the brain activity of someone with a tendency toward psychosis. Eysenck’s “psychoticism dimension” also purports the idea of the connection between a darker personality and a creative mind. The dimension proved to substantially associate psychoticism with multiple creativity-related facets, but most significantly with the originality aspect of creativity.
Another shared trait is attenuated latent inhibition, or the reduced ability to filter out irrelevant stimuli. As put beautifully in a 2003 journal article, “creative individuals appear to be characterized in part by the ability to perceive and describe what remains hidden from the view of others.” It just so happens that there’s a psychotic twist to that ability.
Furthermore, a 2011 article titled, “Creativity and psychopathology: a shared vulnerability model” found more overlapping traits: a preference for novelty, divergent thinking or associations between previously unrelated elements, and the aforementioned allowance of extra stimuli into one’s awareness.
People prone to mania also show similar symptoms to creatives in an intense flow state. Time distorts and the need for food and sleep diminishes.
In summary, high levels of creativity and some psychiatric conditions share a handful of traits including:
- Similar brain activity
- Originality
- Attenuated latent inhibition.
- Preference for novelty
- Divergent thinking
- Manic-like episodes
Some studies found compelling links, or at least similarities, between creativity and mental illness, however, no research significantly points to a cause-and-effect relationship. Instead, the research points to a highly complex interplay between creativity, some cognitive features, and a vulnerability to certain mental health conditions.
So, does the curse of creativity exist?
Being miserable doesn’t make you better than anyone else, House. It just makes you miserable.
House M.D. quoting his best friend, Wilson
If you’re going to have the tortured soul of an artist, then you might as well create some art while you’re at it.
Leila Sales, author
Yes, the curse of creativity exists.
However, a curse similarly exists for those with a high level of any trait. The creative’s curse can be managed, and it has less to do with a destiny of torture than it does with finding a sustainable way to practice one’s creativity.
Adversity and pain often inspire art. Many famous artists turned their sorrows into art (John Milton, Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo) and then publicized it. Few professions require an individual to bare their soul like creative professions. Scandal, sadness and drama fascinate us. That’s why good stories present conflict rather than repeated success. There’s a market for pain because it’s seen as truth.
However, beauty and happiness also inspire art. That’s why most stories have happy, or at least meaningful, endings. There’s a market for joy because it made the pain worth it.
Key Takeaways
The prescribed curse is the stock character of the tortured artist who dies for their art. It exists but it is not the rule.
The actual curse is the high risk associated with trying to successfully monetize one’s creativity and the misery associated with ignoring one’s creativity.
While there is evidence of connections between mental illness and creativity, the relationship is multifaceted and not fully understood.
The research behind the complex relationship between creativity and mental illness:
- Associations exist between certain mood disorders, such as major depression and bipolar disorder, and creativity. However, having a mood disorder doesn’t necessarily equate to heightened artistic ability.
- Creative individuals may be more prone to mood disorders due to the demanding lifestyles associated with their pursuits, rather than creativity itself being a direct cause of mental illness.
- Studies examining the link between creative professions and psychiatric conditions reveal mixed findings, with writers showing a higher susceptibility to various psychiatric disorders compared to other creative professions like dancers, visual artists, and directors.
- Cognitive features associated with creativity overlap with those of psychotic processes, suggesting shared neural mechanisms. This includes traits such as attenuated latent inhibition and a propensity for novelty and divergent thinking.
- Eysenck’s “psychoticism dimension” associates certain darker personality traits with creativity, particularly emphasizing the role of originality.
- Individuals prone to mania exhibit similar symptoms to those in intense creative flow states, such as distorted perception of time and reduced need for food and sleep.
Chronicles of Creativity Part V will discuss the protocols for managing the curse of the creative.
