It had to happen--a counterpoint to my assertion that musicians were among the most intelligent of all humanity. It seems that recent medical news also tells us that creativity is also linked to mental illness.From Science Daily:
The study in the September issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology says the brains of creative people appear to be more open to incoming stimuli from the surrounding environment. Other people's brains might shut out this same information through a process called "latent inhibition" -- defined as an animal's unconscious capacity to ignore stimuli that experience has shown are irrelevant to its needs. Through psychological testing, the researchers showed that creative individuals are much more likely to have low levels of latent inhibition.Later in the article:
"Scientists have wondered for a long time why madness and creativity seem linked," says Carson. "It appears likely that low levels of latent inhibition and exceptional flexibility in thought might predispose to mental illness under some conditions and to creative accomplishment under others." For example, during the early stages of diseases such as schizophrenia, which are often accompanied by feelings of deep insight, mystical knowledge and religious experience, chemical changes take place in which latent inhibition disappears.Read the full article here.
2 comments:
It is interesting . . . but I don't know that I'd call a paper from 2003 recent!
You are right, Richard! I'm not sure why that study just popped up in my normal blog searching . . . but it did.
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