Many people think of the tortured artist such as Vincent Van Gogh when we say the word creative. Creativity has influenced numerous aspects of our life, through media, design and written work. Many movies portray this archetype of the creative but “mad” genius. Artists are seen as deviant, emotional, non-conforming, unconventional and inspired by things which others do not observe. But is there any truth to this in research on creativity and mental illness? Are artists truly more emotional, or “tortured”?
There have been 2 famous studies which I will be mentioning in this article. The first study was done by Dr. Nancy, she wanted to look at present day artists and see if they met the diagnostic criteria for a mental illness. The term ‘artist’ can be vague so she used a group of writers who were in a prestigious Ivy League Writer’s Group. The sample was small, only 30 people. She interviewed these writer’s using a structured interview to see if they met the DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manual) diagnosis for any mental illnesses. This was matched with a control group who was part of the general population = no artistic background or career but they matched with the Writer’s on education, gender and age. The results were that 80% of the writers met the criteria for an affective mood disorder while only 30% of the controls did. More specifically, bipolar type 2 was the most common diagnosis to be found within these group of writers. Also alcohol dependance was found to be high within the writer’s group.
However, this study was conducted with a small sample size, and it only looked at writers not other creative professions (graphic design, painting, acting etc). So another study I want to reference is a study done by Kyaga (2012) who surveyed the entire Swedish population for 40 years. She obtained census data from the government who allowed her to look at this information for research purposes. She looked at people who were in creative occupations (architecture, graphic design, painter, author etc. Note: the creative occupations were subjective to Kyaga and does not specify which creative occupations she listed except author) and then she looked at their mental health history. Similarly, she looked at people who were not in creative occupations and looked at their mental health history. From this study, the results were that people in creative occupations were less likely to have a mental health illness than the control (non-creative) group. However, the one exception was bipolar disorder, which was more likely to be diagnosed in people with creative occupations. Then Kyaga looked at authors in the Swedish population specifically, and found that just authors were 2x more likely than the general population to suffer from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, alcohol abuse and substance abuse. However, this study could be biased because it is the Swedish population, it does not translate to other cultures, however it could be a commentary on Western cultures specifically. Another factor that could of influenced these results is that many creative occupations have ‘gatekeeping’ issues which may effect how many people who suffer from mental illness could be in that occupation.
(gatekeeping: degrees, certain tests and other barriers that are needed in order to apply for a specific job i.e needing your undergraduate degree to go to law school). These barriers could prevent people who suffer from mental illness to take those jobs, but they could still be creative in their spare time or have creative hobbies. This was not examined in this study. So overall, it seems that the tortured artist archetype is partly true. Those who suffer from bipolar disorder seem to be attracted to creative professions, and many writers suffer with mental illness. I can think of many great writers F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Charles Bukowski, all of these famous writers have documented their struggle with alcohol abuse and depression. Being creative and staying creative is important, regardless of your mental health diagnosis. Even if you aren’t into the arts, staying creative can be walking on a new nature trail, trying new moves at the gym, or taking up a new hobby. Variety and novel experiences are important to mental health, as it helps people stay excited and connected with life.
