Crazy good, or just crazy?

A connection between art and mental illness has been observed all the way back to the Ancient Greeks, and in modern times, some studies support the hypothesis that artists have higher rates of mental health issues. Why would that be so? Perhaps some of the traits of psychiatric disorders help artists create new perspectives on the world. In changing how a person experiences their surroundings and processes their emotions, certain illnesses may help the artist connect to their work in ways that have never been tried before. Studies have found that writers may have a higher level of depression, while visual artists may be more likely to experience visual hallucinations of schizophrenia.

Research has also linked some creative people with a category called “Highly Sensitive Persons” (HSPs). “A highly sensitive person is characterized by deep information processing, high emotional reactivity, increased awareness of environmental subtleties, and easy overstimulation,” explains Judith Homberg, a specialist in sensory processing sensitivity. A musician who is highly sensitive to differences in sounds, a visual artist who can distinguish subtleties of color, or a writer who is emotionally attuned to other people may well have biological differences in the brain and central nervous system, whether inborn or developed through the brain’s neural plasticity.

Still other studies do not show much higher levels of mental illness among wide selections of professional artists than among the general population. Perhaps our human need for “story” has made the memorable and tragic lives of artists who experienced deep suffering, like Edgar Allen Poe and Vincent Van Gogh, become icons or symbols for all creative types – or perhaps their unusual gifts in rendering their inner lives for us to see just shine a bright light on problems that are experienced by many “non-artists” as well. After all, a depressed plumber or a hallucinating engineer probably has not left behind as vivid an artifact of their emotional experiences.

What do you think? Is choosing a life of creativity an inherently irrational act?