Pablo Picasso - Self Portrait
When I was a child, a doctor once told me that he suspected that I might have attention deficit disorder - ADD (or ADHD as it’s now called). He went on to say “..but, only a touch of it. Basically enough to make you creative”. I suspect that he was joking at the time, but it always made me wonder.
I was reminded of this recently when I dug up a report based on research by Professor Arnold Ludwig of the University of Kentucky.
Dr. Ludwig studied over 1000 “original thinkers” in a wide array of professions - art, music, business, science, politics and sports. In his research spannig close to 10 years, he studied these people’s mental fitness, their chosen professions and the releationships between their mental health and career selection. What he found was interesting: Crazy people have jobs that rely on creativity.
The results from his study (”Method and Madness in the Arts and Sciences”) showed that:
- 9 out of 10 poets studied had diagnosable mental disorders (!)
- 77% of fiction writers had mental disorders
- 74% of theater people
- 73% of painters and other visual artists
- 68% of musicians (which I think is dead accurate based on my own experience of being in bands!)
This is compared to 18 to 29% for sports, scientists and business people.
Many studies have shown higher rates of depression in creative people as well (how depressing!).
So, the question that begs to be asked is what is the causative relationship? Are creative people crazy, or are crazy people creative? Dr. Ludwig says:
“Mental illness is not the price people pay for their creative gifts… creative people who are mentally ill find themselves, almost by default, in the arts rather than in business or the other sciences.”
Ok, so being creative doesn’t make us crazy… Whew, we dodged that bullet. What this does mean, however, is that we may have to deal with more off-kilter-ness from our co-workers and professional relationships if we work in a creative field.
Tell us what you think - do you agree with Dr. Ludwig’s findings, or do you just think he’s crazy being creative?
Tags: Creativity, mental health
12 comments
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February 28, 2009 at 7:45 am
Pingback from Seeing the World Differently Makes You Crazy?
February 25, 2009 at 4:47 pm
sundial
Interesting point - I think there are also more left handed people in the arts - and they are supposedly more “creative” too. Have you noticed that Obama is a lefty?
February 25, 2009 at 4:50 pm
JOE
Step through the looking glass, have tea with Alice and Dr.Ludwig, give Frank Zappa a hug, and remember, as Jimmy said, People are Strange.
February 25, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Michael Sevilla
Another angle: creative people are “crazy” because of the way they see the world - different/uniquely than non-creative people. Perhaps it is this view point, the inferences, the connections, etc… that lead others to think they are crazy when all they are doing is seeing something (or creating something) that others cannot possibly contrive until once the process is done.
February 25, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Penguin Pete
The percentage for bloggers is probably 98%, with the other 2% being the ones who are too boring to read. (Spoken as a blogger myself, mind.)
February 26, 2009 at 9:24 am
dan
it is seen in music as well, for example amadeus and syd barrett. 2 musicians so original and talented for their time that it was almost as if their brains couldn’t handle it. the result was a downward spiral into ‘madness’.
i’m around a lot of creative people all the time. i’ve concluded that everyone in the world is a bit crazy, creative people’s crazy is just far more interesting to be around.
July 10, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Joe McBean
I think these numbers are crap, only 18% of businessmen have mental disorders? BS. Narcissistic Personality Disorder mixed in with control issues is a REQUIREMENT for management.
July 11, 2009 at 3:05 am
Barking Unicorn, Denver, CO
“No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.” ~ Aristotle.
Truth is eternal.
December 7, 2009 at 4:21 am
zina
he may be right but i think creative people are not crazy but “people” think thry are crazy simply because they are creating new ideas which seems abnormal for them because they do not nknow what deas “creativity” mean.
March 27, 2010 at 12:31 am
umbrellas
thanks for your share “ and
I think these numbers are crap, only 18% of businessmen have mental disorders? BS. Narcissistic Personality Disorder mixed in with control issues is a REQUIREMENT for management too !i love umbrellasvery much
April 22, 2010 at 6:05 am
Preeti Edul
All crazy people definitely want this to be true! I’m raining my hand for sure
May 6, 2010 at 4:00 pm
dildar dewan
the source of creativity and craziness is one and the same…a fault in the filtering process. while not exactly peaceful this chaos is an ideal ocean for catching big fish if you have the right equipment. most philosophers and poets have ridden the dangerous waves and believe me they have built out of the shipwrecked remains of their once stable lives the rafts that have kept them afloat. its all just a matter of thought management. or striking a delicate balance between selectivity and schizophrenia. open the floodgates too much and u have a full-fledged nervous disorder on your hands. use drugs and you bump off the creative activity. maybe a mystic and a schizophrenic differ only in the fact that the mystic never says that he is a schizophrenic and hence is never labeled in the first place.