Creativity and Psychopathology: A Shared Vulnerability Model

Carson, Shelley

doi:10.1177/070674371105600304

Cited by 196 publications

(215 citation statements)

References 87 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

179

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The perceptual and associative skills that underlie creative talent have a substantial literature already, and are more fully discussed in this In Review's companion article. 2 Creative people are those with the strongest drive to create, who work at it constantly. 3,4 Increased creative motivation correlates with improved productivity.…”

Section: Medical Conditions Linked To Creativitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain Illness and Creativity: Mechanisms and Treatment Risks

Flaherty

2011

Can J Psychiatry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Highlights • Psychiatric and neurological drug choice may alter patients' creativity, sometimes in counterintuitive ways. • To preserve creativity, treatments that enhance dopaminergic function are more helpful than those that decrease dopaminergic function. • Traits that in stressful environments increase vulnerability to illness may, in permissive environments, help creativity. Brain diseases and their treatment may help or hurt creativity in ways that shape quality of life. Increased creative drive is associated with bipolar disorder, depression, psychosis, temporal lobe epilepsy, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson disease treatments, and autism. Creativity depends on goal-driven approach motivation from midbrain dopaminergic systems. Fear-driven avoidance motivation is of less aid to creativity. When serotonin and norepinephrine lower motivation and flexible behaviour, they can inhibit creativity. Hemispheric lateralization and frontotemporal connections must interact to create new ideas and conceptual schemes. The right brain and temporal lobe contribute skill in novelty detection, while the left brain and frontal lobe foster approach motivation and more easily generate new patterns of action from the novel perceptions. Genes and phenotypes that increase plasticity and creativity in tolerant environments with relaxed selection pressure may confer risk in rigorous environments. Few papers substantively address this important but fraught topic. Antidepressants (ADs) that inhibit fear-driven motivation, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, sometimes inhibit goal-oriented motivation as well. ADs that boost goal-directed motivation, such as bupropion, may remediate this effect. Benzodiazepines and alcohol may be counterproductive. Although dopaminergic agonists sometimes stimulate creativity, their doing so may inappropriately disinhibit behaviour. Dopamine antagonists may suppress creative motivation; lithium and anticonvulsant mood stabilizers may do so less. Physical exercise and REM sleep may help creativity. Art therapy and psychotherapy are not well studied. Preserving creative motivation can help creativity and other aspects of well-being in all patients, not just artists or researchers.

show abstract

Section: Medical Conditions Linked To Creativitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain Illness and Creativity: Mechanisms and Treatment Risks

Flaherty

2011

Can J Psychiatry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, studies have generally focused on the relationship between creativity and psychopathological features including individuals interested in the visual arts. Carson (2011) stated that people with high creativity levels are in the risk group for pathological features such as depression, schizophrenia, and alcoholism. Additionally, Ludwig (1998) reported relationships between different fields of art, especially the visual artists and some mental illnesses in 137 well-known artist sample.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personality Traits and Psychological Symptoms of Music and Art Students

Yöndem

Per

2017

JETS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The qualities of artists and musicians have attracted the attention of personality psychologists and researchers studying creativity. Artistic activities are considered by some to be therapeutic, and may offer a buffer effect on psychological health. On the other hand, research has occasionally revealed a positive relationship between creativity and psychological disorders when it comes to artistic activities. This study aims to investigate the personality traits and psychological symptoms of art and music students, and to make comparisons between different fields of art. The present research was planned as a descriptive and comparative study. The participants consisted of 245 university students (79 male, and 166 female), including 120 music and 125 art students. The Big Five Inventory, the Brief Symptom Inventory, and a Personal Information Form were administered to all participants. The Mann-Whitney U test, a descriptive analysis method, was used to test if students from the two fields of art differed according to their personality traits and psychological symptoms. The results showed that the students from both fields of art had a similar range of scores for the five domains of personality traits: extroversion, openness to new experiences, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. The study revealed that neuroticism in the music students and conscientiousness in art students were found to be significantly higher. As for psychological symptoms, the music students' scores on total symptom disorder, anxiety, and negative self-concept factors were found to be significantly higher than that of art students. The results of the study were discussed by drawing upon relevant literature.

show abstract

“…12 Our perceptions are gated, at the thalamic level, by our goals and presuppositions. However, as Dr Shelley H Carson 13 points out in her In Review article in this issue, there are important individual differences in the degree of that gating. Creative people appear to have lower levels of latent inhibition (LI).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%