Creativity
Creativity
Descriptive research has focused on creativity in understanding bipolar disorder . Although having bipolar disorder carries negative social, financial and interpersonal outcomes, a high percentage of patients seem to describe positive experiences and contributions in their lives related to mental illness in terms of sensitivity, alertness, productivity, social relationships, sexuality and creativity . Most early studies supporting this claim of a connection between bipolar illness, creativity and well-being have some limitations involving sampling size, potential confounding factors, and reliance on anecdotal evidence based on the lives and bibliographic recollections of eminent artists and writers . Recent efforts have shown that although samples of creative artists, scientists, architects, and businessmen may have an overepresentation of affective psychopathology, cases of full blown manic-depressive illness are uncommon . Creativity has been associated with samples of non-eminent bipolar patients where cyclothymic and hyperthymic temperaments seem to be more prevalent than in the general population . Others argue for a possible transmission in families with genetic suceptibility, showing that children with and at risk for bipolar disorder have higher creativity than healthy controls .
The creative process initially atributed to bipolar disorder involves a combination of different consisting of melancholia, bipolar spectrum temperaments, and speed of thought. Recent publications have also looked at thought acceleration as a positive feature of mania . Results suggest that effects of thought speed on mood are partially rooted in the subjective experience itself. There seems to be a link between “racing thoughts" and euphoria in cases of clinical mania, and potential implications for creativity and other positive characteristics, such as feelings of power, inflated self-esteem, and sense of heightened energy. Clinicians who treat creative individuals with mood disorders confront a variety of challenges, including fear that treatment diminishes creativity .
A few controlled studies to date have measured creativity comparing samples of euthymic bipolar patients with unipolar depressed patients, creative controls, and healthy subjects. Results showed that patients with bipolar disorder and creative controls, but not major depressive disorder patients, had similarly enhanced creativity on the Baron & Welsch Art Scale (BWAS), driven by an increase on the BWAS-Dislike compared to healthy controls. The studies also indicated that the psychological trait of openness to experience was most associated with creativity.
