Creativity and Psychosis

Is there a link? Jonathan S. Byrd thinks there is and makes a good case. This is an excellent article, even if you end up not agreeing with the conclusions drawn. It is followed by some peer commentary and a response from the author.

[As an aside: this is a perfect example of why open-source publishing should be the standard.]

Here is an interesting excerpt:

The Case of Latent Inhibition

Latent Inhibition (LI) is defined as "the capacity to screen from conscious awareness stimuli previously experienced as irrelevant" (Carson, Peterson, & Higgins, 2003, p. 499). Carson, Peterson, and Higgins (2003) go into detail, testing several different traits and how low/high levels of LI have effects upon them. The study we are most interested in is the study where low/high levels of inhibition are compared with moderate/high levels of IQ and their respective creativity output.

A person with high levels of LI will tend to always see things the same way as before. "If an item was irrelevant before, it will be irrelevant again," is something that goes through the subconscious mind of a person with high levels of LI. Regardless of a person's IQ, if a person has a high LI score; they tend to do poorly on creativity testing. This is logical because a person who always sees things with the same stigma can hardly be expected to improve upon said object, regardless of how intelligent they are.

A person with low levels of LI on the other hand will not dismiss something as irrelevant based on past experiences. They re-analyze the object or situation again before coming to any conclusions about it. Here is where we see a big jump between the differences in IQ, those with a moderate IQ scored slightly higher than those with high levels of inhibition, but those with high IQ scored much better in creativity tests than their less intelligent test subjects. This also makes sense if you think about it, a more intelligent, more intuitive person who re-analyzes things will notice more, and extrapolate further compared to one who is less intelligent.

Reduced LI scores in humans has been associated with psychotic states or psychotic proneness, and as reduced levels of LI produce higher levels of creativity, one can see the correlation between creativity and psychoses. "These results support the theory that highly creative individuals and psychotic-prone individuals may possess neurobiological similarities, perhaps genetically determined, that present either as psychotic predisposition on the one hand or as unusual creative potential on the other" (Carson, Peterson, & Higgins, 2003, p. 505).

Read the whole article.

Tags: Creative Genius or Psychotic?, Jonathan S. Byrd, psychology, creativity, psychosis