“Men have called me mad,” wrote the 19th century poet Edgar Allen Poe, “but the question is not yet settled whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence – whether all that is profound – does not spring from disease of thought, from moods of mind exalted at the expenses of the general intellect.”
Poe’s feeling that genius and insanity are linked is supported by a wealth of anecdotal evidence. Many prominent artists have written accounts of their moods that describe bouts of depression followed by periods of elation, consistent with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. It has been claimed that 50% of poets, 38% of musicians, 20% of painters, and many others in creative fields have bipolar disorder. By contrast, the condition affects just 1% of the population at large.
Recent high-profile evidence comes from Kay Jamison from Johns Hopkins University in Boston, MA. Jamison, a professor of psychiatry who is herself afflicted by bipolar disorder, found that both bipolar disorder and its milder form, cyclothymia, were significantly more common among British writers and artists than they were in the general population. Nancy Andreasen, another proponent of the link between creativity and bipolar illness, found that creative writers were far more likely to suffer from mental illness, primarily bipolar disorder, than their counterparts in other occupations. Andreason, a psychiatrist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA, also found that the writers’ first-degree relatives were more likely to be creative and suffer from a mood disorder, suggesting a genetic – and therefore heritable – basis for the disease.
In people with bipolar disorder, the manic and hypomanic phases are diagnosed on the basis of various symptoms, including flight of ideas, lowering of inhibitions, and heightened creativity, sensitivity, and productivity. The potential of such attributes to enhance artistic creativity is self-evident. Furthermore, mania is characterized by improvements in memory and cognition that may also boost creativity. Clinical studies show that individuals in a manic state tend to rhyme and use alliteration more, and can find more synonyms and word-associate more quickly than those without bipolar disorder. The enhanced cognitive state of mania may thus contribute to a fluency of ideas that is essential to innovation.
Another theory is that experiencing cycles of depression and mania facilitates the development of artistic insight by allowing sufferers to experience extreme emotional lows and highs. This is illustrated by a quote from Professor Jamison, who wrote: “I honestly believe that as a result of [my illness] I have felt more things, more deeply; had more experiences, more intensely; loved more, and have been more loved; laughed more often for having cried more often; appreciated more the springs, for all the winters... Depressed, I have crawled on my hands and knees in order to get across a room and have done it for month after month. But normal or manic I have run faster, thought faster, and loved faster than most I know.”
Critics of the notion that bipolar disorder increases creativity stress that the link, though widely accepted, is only theoretical: A causal connection has never been proven. Furthermore, the biological mechanisms underlying such a link remains speculative and researchers are far from unified in suggesting a pathway that explains why creativity and bipolar disorder might tend to coexist. An obvious argument against a link is that most people with bipolar disorder are not creative or artistic, while most artists and creative individuals are not affected by bipolar disorder. Therefore, the relationship, if one exists, is complex and influenced by a number of as-yet unidentified factors.
There are methodological flaws in many studies examining mental illness in famous historical figures. For instance, medical diagnoses based purely on biographical descriptions are unreliable, meaning that estimates of the prevalence of bipolar disorder among these figures should be interpreted with caution. It is also possible that studies based on biographical sources are subject to significant bias. For example, we tend to know far more about the private lives of famous individuals than about members of the general public, who might therefore be more able to hide such afflictions, in order to avoid social stigma.
Although Professor Jamison used systematic methods to eliminate this sort of bias, her studies have been criticised for focusing on people who have become “socially defined” as creative – for example, by winning prizes. Lesser-known artists and writers, who are in the majority, may not have been included in the research as nothing is known about their private lives and mental health. The samples of artists included in studies such as Professor Jamison’s may therefore be unrepresentative. Moreover, eminent artists may refuse to participate in such research for fear of stigmatization, skewing the analysis yet further.
Others have questioned the physiological mechanisms by which bipolar disorder might enhance creativity, arguing that certain traits widespread among creative people – eccentricity, uneasiness, propensity to excess, and experimentation – could be a reflection not of an underlying mental illness but of the tolerance by society of the behavior of high-achieving individuals. In other words, their success allows them to behave in ways that would not be tolerated in a member of the general public. Another theory is that the dramatic mood swings experienced by people with bipolar disorder make them unsuited to structured occupations such as business or science. These individuals are thus drawn to more creative pursuits as they are more accommodating for those who are emotionally unstable.
If there is indeed a link between mental illness and creativity, it may not be limited to bipolar disorder. Instead, a state of general unease or tension may be conducive to artistic achievement. This is supported by evidence that many famous writers tend to be most productive during the stable periods between manic or depressive episodes. Other studies suggest that creative abilities tend to be most likely in people with mild forms of the disease. On the flip side, Harvard psychiatrist Albert Rothenburg argues that it is mental health rather than illness that facilitates creativity, noting that creative individuals in a range of professions are characterised by emotional stability.
Even if a link between bipolar disorder and creativity is proven, it may be relevant in only a minority of individuals. Some fear that romanticising such a serious medical condition is dangerous, placing a burden on sufferers to be creative or even to refuse treatment. So, although society as a whole benefits from its so-called “mad geniuses”, this must be balanced against the cost to the individual – at least one in five sufferers attempt suicide. Bipolar disorder is now a treatable condition and most patients report that their quality of life improves after starting medication.
Famous creatives believed to have suffered from bipolar disorder:
| Writers: | | Composers: |
Hans Christian Andersen
William Faulkner
Ernest Hemingway
Charles Dickens
Mary Shelley
Virginia Woolf
Honore de Balzac | | Hector Berlioz
George Frederic Handel
Gustav Mahler
Sergey Rachmaninoff
Robert Schumann
Irving Berlin
Peter Tchaikovsky
Ludwig van Beethoven |
| | |
| Poets: | | Artists: |
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
William Blake
Emily Dickinson
T. S. Eliot
Victor Hugo
John Keats
Edgar Allen Poe | | Paul Gaugin
Vincent van Gogh
Michelangelo
Adolphe Monticelli
Georgia O’Keefe
Jackson Pollock |
Further information:
Bipolar Aware
www.bipolaraware.co.uk
Manic Depression Fellowship
www.mdf.org.uk
Depression Alliance
www.depressionalliance.org
Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation
www.bpkids.org
Mind
www.mind.org.uk
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