|
Rothenberg A.
Bipolar illness, creativity, and
treatment.
Psychiatr Q 2001 Summer;72(2):131-47
"There
have been in recent years increasing claims in both popular and professional literature
for a connection between bipolar illness and creativity. A review of studies supporting
this claim reveals serious flaws in sampling, methodology, presentation of results,
and conclusions. Although there is therefore no evidence for etiological or genetic
linkages, it is still necessary to explain interrelationships in those creative
persons suffering from the illness. Examples of the work in progress of artists
with bipolar disorder, Jackson Pollock and Edvard Munch, illustrate the use of
healthy and adaptive creative cognition--janusian and homospatial processes--in
the former's breakthrough conception during an improvement phase in treatment
leading to the development of the Abstract Expressionist Movement and in the latter's
transformation of an hallucination into his famous artwork "The Scream."
Treatment options that do not produce cognitive effects are important for creative
persons with bipolar disorder." [Abstract]
Andreasen
NC.
Creativity and mental illness: prevalence rates in writers and
their first-degree relatives.
Am J Psychiatry 1987 Oct;144(10):1288-92
"Rates of mental illness were examined in 30 creative writers, 30 matched
control subjects, and the first-degree relatives of both groups. The writers had
a substantially higher rate of mental illness, predominantly affective disorder,
with a tendency toward the bipolar subtype. There was also a higher prevalence
of affective disorder and creativity in the writers' first-degree relatives, suggesting
that these traits run together in families and could be genetically mediated.
Both writers and control subjects had IQs in the superior range; the writers excelled
only on the WAIS vocabulary subtest, confirming previous observations that intelligence
and creativity are independent mental abilities." [Abstract]
Shaw ED, Mann JJ, Stokes
PE, Manevitz AZ.
Effects of lithium carbonate on associative productivity
and idiosyncrasy in bipolar outpatients.
Am J Psychiatry
1986 Sep;143(9):1166-9
"To determine the effect of lithium carbonate
on the productivity and idiosyncrasy of written associations of euthymic outpatients
with affective disorder, the authors assessed 22 patients at weekly intervals
during lithium treatment, 2 consecutive weeks of placebo, and 2 consecutive weeks
after lithium was resumed. Lithium discontinuation produced a significant increase
in associational productivity and a demonstrable increase in associative idiosyncrasy,
and restoration of lithium dose significantly reversed both effects. The results
suggest that lithium may affect the underlying neuropsychological functions critical
to the ability to generate associations and indicate the need for further study
of lithium's effects on these and other functions that may relate to neuropsychological
and creative processes." [Abstract]
Schou M.
Artistic productivity and lithium
prophylaxis in manic-depressive illness.
Br J Psychiatry
1979 Aug;135:97-103
"Twenty-four manic-depressive artists, in whom prophylactic
lithium treatment had attenuated or prevented recurrences to a significant degree,
were questioned about their creative power during the treatment. Twelve artists
reported increased artistic productivity, six unaltered productivity, and six
lowered productivity. The effect of lithium treatment on artistic productivity
may depend on the severity and type of the illness, on individual sensitivity,
and on habits of utilizing manic episodes productively." [Abstract] |
Andreasen NC, Glick ID.
Bipolar affective
disorder and creativity: implications and clinical management.
Compr Psychiatry 1988 May-Jun;29(3):207-17
"Research on the relationship
between creativity and mental illness is summarized, and studies documenting a
relationship in writers between creativity and affective illness (particularly
bipolar illness) are described. Writers have a high prevalence of affective illness,
and both affective illness and creativity have increased frequency in their first-degree
relatives. The clinical management of the creative individual is challenging.
In general, creative individuals are most productive when their affective symptoms
are under good control." [Abstract]
McDermott JF.
Emily Dickinson revisited:
a study of periodicity in her work.
Am J Psychiatry 2001
May;158(5):686-90
"OBJECTIVE: Emily Dickinson, arguably one of America's
foremost poets, is characterized by critics as able to capture extreme emotional
states in her greatest work. Recent dating of her poems offers the periodicity
of her writing as a behavior that can be examined for patterns of affective illness
that may relate to these states. METHOD: The bulk of Dickinson's work was written
during a clearly defined 8-year period when she was age 28-35. Poems written during
that period, 1858-1865, were grouped by year and examined for annual and seasonal
distribution. RESULTS: Her 8-year period of productivity was marked by two 4-year
phases. The first shows a seasonal pattern characterized by greater creative output
in spring and summer and a lesser output during the fall and winter. This pattern
was interrupted by an emotional crisis that marked the beginning of the second
phase, a 4-year sustained period of greatly heightened productivity and the emergence
of a revolutionary poetic style. CONCLUSIONS: These data, supported by excerpts
from letters to friends during this period of Dickinson's life, demonstrate seasonal
changes in mood during the first four years of major productivity, followed by
a sustained elevation of creative energy, mood, and cognition during the second.
They suggest, as supported by family history, a bipolar pattern previously described
in creative artists." [Abstract]
Blumer D.
The illness of Vincent van
Gogh.
Am J Psychiatry 2002 Apr;159(4):519-26
"Vincent
van Gogh (1853-1890) had an eccentric personality and unstable moods, suffered
from recurrent psychotic episodes during the last 2 years of his extraordinary
life, and committed suicide at the age of 37. Despite limited evidence, well over
150 physicians have ventured a perplexing variety of diagnoses of his illness.
Henri Gastaut, in a study of the artist's life and medical history published in
1956, identified van Gogh's major illness during the last 2 years of his life
as temporal lobe epilepsy precipitated by the use of absinthe in the presence
of an early limbic lesion. In essence, Gastaut confirmed the diagnosis originally
made by the French physicians who had treated van Gogh. However, van Gogh had
earlier suffered two distinct episodes of reactive depression, and there are clearly
bipolar aspects to his history. Both episodes of depression were followed by sustained
periods of increasingly high energy and enthusiasm, first as an evangelist and
then as an artist. The highlights of van Gogh's life and letters are reviewed
and discussed in an effort toward better understanding of the complexity of his
illness." [Abstract]
Lederman RJ.
Robert Schumann.
Semin Neurol 1999;19 Suppl 1:17-24
"Robert Schumann, one of the giants
of early romantic music, was born in Saxony in 1810 and died in an asylum shortly
after his 46th birthday. Early in life, he demonstrated extraordinary skills in
both music and journalism; he remained active in both areas until his final illness.
His marriage to the remarkable pianist, Clara Wieck, provided him with both much-needed
emotional support and a highly effective champion of his music throughout her
lengthy career. Schumann's plans to be a concert pianist were thwarted at least
partially by an injury to his right hand, the nature of which has been the subject
of much speculation. After considering what few facts are available, the author
concludes that this may have represented focal dystonia. His compositional output
waxed and waned dramatically over his professional life, reflecting to some degree
his emotional state. It is considered most likely that he suffered from a major
affective disorder, bipolar type. This ultimately led to a suicide attempt in
February 1854, and to his eventual death in July 1856. Despite wide-spread and
reasonable suspicion that he may have died from neurosyphilis, severe malnutrition
from self-starvation seems more likely." [Abstract |
