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Schizophrenia is the price we pay for minds poised near the edge of a cliff

(www.psychiatrymargins.com)
262 points Anon84 | 1 comments | 28 Jun 25 21:22 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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cageface ◴[29 Jun 25 07:14 UTC] No.44410923[source]▶
Maybe this could explain why mental illness & creativity seem to be so closely related? Just as one example, James Joyce's daughter was schizophrenic.
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kayodelycaon ◴[29 Jun 25 13:13 UTC] No.44412882[source]▶
Mental illness and creativity are not closely related. There is correlation but mental illness is not required for creativity.

According to Wikipedia, creative people are 25% more likely to have a mental illness.

As for why so many bipolar people are famous, manic episodes can be very productive.

For myself, being bipolar has given me several lifetimes of perspective to inform my writing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity_and_mental_health

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1. bumby ◴[30 Jun 25 20:25 UTC] No.44427458[source]▶
Not my area of expertise, so it should be taken with a boulder of salt, but there are other studies that seem to indicate a much higher correlation. Part of the problem may be that “creative” is a nebulous term. One Swedish study found that people with artistic backgrounds have a 1.9x likelihood of developing schizophrenia and 1.62x odds of developing bipolar disorder.

I suspect (with nothing to support it) that there is a range where people with mental illness are able to interpret the world differently than normies (and thus make connections that normies do not), but also a point where that perception gets so out of joint that they can no longer function in reality. So in the former case, it may help in creative pursuits, but the latter may hamper it.