We’ve all heard about the suffering artist. Edgar Allan Poe drinks himself nuts, scribing poems and stories that seem to relate to the early loss of a young woman he loved. Vincent Van Gogh lopped off an ear and then painted a picture of his one-eared self. These aren’t unique artistic tales. There really is a higher incidence of drug abuse, bipolar problems, etc., among creative people.

Many people assume that creativity causes the artist to suffer. “His art drove him mad.”

It now appears things are the other way around.

While the creative process might sometimes worsen an artist or writer’s emotional state, as far as the proclivity toward being in that state is concerned, that tendency was there first and might also be the source of the creativity.

Of course there’s no one “cause” of creativity. A wide range of events are necessary for an individual to become creative. Among those discovered are encouragement of parents and mentors, birth order, and even genetics.

However it’s interesting to note that many creative people seem to have suffered childhood trauma of one sort or another. (Robert J. Sternberg, Handbook of Creativity, p. 175).

And there is a wealth of studies linking childhood and adolescent trauma of one sort or another to later emotional issues in later life – including depression.

So what may spark or encourage creativity may also be the catalyst for emotional problems in an individual.

Psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison wrote (in Touched with Fire) that while the majority of people suffering from mood disorders aren’t creative, “It seems that these diseases can sometimes enhance or otherwise contribute to creativity in some people. Biographical studies of earlier generations of artists and writers also show consistently high rates of suicide, depression, and manic-depression.”

Further, there’s some evidence that an individual’s creative endeavors are a sort of therapy for depression and other mental problems an artist or writer might suffer. In other words, creativity is a way to cope or recover from emotional trauma.

As Maureen Neihart, Psy.D. (in Creativity, the Arts, and Madness) wrote, “A basic premise of the expressive therapies (e.g. art, music, and dance therapy, etc.) is that writing, composing, or drawing, etc., is a means to self-understanding, emotional stability and resolution of conflict. Creativity provides a way to structure or reframe pain.”

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When not feeling traumatized, Duncan Long works as a writer/illustrator. His writing and artwork have appeared in publications from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers. See his cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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