What we seem to be looking at is that fine edge where productive novel thinking ventures close to the precipice of pathologically delusional thinking.
In his piece, Dr Kaufman talked about "latent inhibition" (LI), the brain's ability to unconsciously filter out information. High latent inhibition is conducive to rational thought. Low latent inhibition is associated with psychosis and schizophrenia.
But Dr Kaufman noted:
Recently researchers have wondered whether a reduced latent inhibition can actually be beneficial for creativity. After all, decreased LI may make an individual more likely to see connections that others may not notice.
In an ideal situation, a rational brain (the seat of executive function) processing novel information can produce astonishing insights that can pass for genius, creativity, or intuition. Dr Kaufman cited both his own research and the research of others in support of the proposition that those with a higher faith in their own intuition tested “high” for “low” LI.
People with schizophrenia, unfortunately, do not fare well with executive function. They get overwhelmed. Their low LI translates into psychosis. Sylvia Nasar, in her book “A Beautiful Mind,” recounts a colleague asking John Nash in 1959 how he could believe that extraterrestrials were sending him messages.
"Because," Nash replied, "the ideas that I had about supernatural beings came to me the same way that my mathematical ideas did. So I took them seriously."
In two blog pieces (on Nash and on Darwin) I speculated that Dr Nash may have been dealing with a form of “schizophrenia lite” (either under-the-radar “prodromal” symptoms or “schizotypy”) that allowed him to produce brilliant insights before the full force of the illness descended and robbed him of a quarter century of his life. What originally got me started on this line of thinking was a lecture I heard by Nancy Andreasen, who noted, among other things, that Einstein had a son who had schizophrenia and that he himself was an eccentric with “schizotypal” tendencies.
In his latest piece, Dr Kaufman dials in the “schizophrenia lite” connection. Schizotypy, he says, “is a watered-down version of schizophrenia” with a constellation of personality traits “that are evident in some degree in everyone.” He cites a recent study by Nelson and Rawlings in Schizophrenia Bulletin that suggests schizotypy “may be positively associated with the experience of creative flow.”
Dr Kaufman defines “flow as “the mental state of being completely present and fully immersed in a task.”
In addition: “When in flow, the creator and the universe become one, outside distractions recede from consciousness, and one's mind is fully open and attuned to the act of creating.”
As Susan Perry in “Writing in Flow” explains: “Looseness and the ability to cross mental boundaries are aspects of both schizophrenic thinking and creative thinking."
Dr Kaufman notes that this is an exciting time for research on the linkages between mental illness and creativity. The Nelson and Rawlings' study, he says, suggests that positive schizotypy, latent inhibition, and flow are intimately related, though a lot more research needs to be done.
Bring it on ...
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Andreason got started on this "looseness of associations" by interviewing people in the Iowa Writer's Workshop. She expected that the writers would not have mental illness, but would have family members with schizophrenia. The second was confirmed. But she found that 80% of the writers had some kind of mental illness. Mood disorders led the list, but they were across the board.
Right now she is doing brain scans of 33 "creative" people from a number of fields, including science. George Lucas is one who is publicly identified.
She thinks it has to do with the basal ganglia
Hey, Willa. I heard Dr Andreasen talk about the study etc at the 2007 APA. She mentioned association cortices. What's with the basal ganglia?
Well, I didn't take notes and it was the local NAMI group, so no professionals, and no details. If I remember correctly (and more thoroughly since dashing off my first comment) she said that all the action is in the white matter, the neurons that connect the different lobes. And I think the connections most important in creativity/mental illness are among the limbic system, the parietal lobe and the basal ganglia.
At this point, I know more about the hardware (the parts) than the software (how the hardware makes connections). I need to get into some kind of brain course!
Hey, Willa. I think we're on the same page, here. It's all about the connections, which has something to do with the association cortices. So my guess is - and I need to research this - we get a lot of the circuitry coming up from the basal ganglia (which I called dopamine central in one piece) and projecting into the mid and upper brain (with signaling going back the other way). We are all creative (otherwise we couldn't carry on a conversation), but really creative people seem to have an enhanced capacity to connect these disparate thoughts and emotions and sensory inputs from different areas of the brain to come up with Eureka. This would also dovetail with what Kaufman et al are saying about latent inhibition and the and the diminished capability of the brain to filter out irrelevant thoughts and emotions and sensory inputs (provided executive function remains strong enough to handle the overload).
This is a super fascinating area of research. For the first time, it appears were getting some real leads (rather than speculation) into where genius (creativity, intuition, etc) meets madness.
Imagine for a second if we had the means to keep creative people creative without them going mad. Or to return so-called mad people to functional creativity.
Food for thought ...
Continuum, connections, continuum, connections, continuum, connections. What does fog have to do with little cat feet? Some people have heard of it. Some people get it. Some people can come up with it. Some people can see the cat. Some people are terrified of the cat. It's about how many connections there are between different parts of the brain, and whether command central is in charge of the connections.
schizotypy “may be positively associated with the experience of creative flow.”
Dr Kaufman defines “flow as “the mental state of being completely present and fully immersed in a task.”
Since when is imagination a mental illness? Not everyone who has a big internal world is mentally ill. Or schizophrenic.
Hi, Unmothered Child. I appreciate your question, so to clear up any possible misunderstandings:
1. Imagination is not a mental illness.
2. But there are some interesting relationships between creativity, intuition, etc and mental illness. Very interesting research is being done - nothing definitive has been found, we need to learn more.
3. A fair number of my blog pieces have been devoted to this apparent connection. Each piece only tells a little piece of the story, which in turn is only a little piece of what we need to know.
4. Psychiatry has an unfortunate tendency to pathologize behavior it judges as not fitting the norm. Creative-intuitive types are often viewed with suspicion by psychiatry. So I think I'm on your side.
5. By the same token, we don't want to lose control.
This is an on=going conversation here at Knowledge is Necessity, so I welcome you joining us.
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