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17. Okt 2010|13:45 |
“The intensest light of reason and revelation combined, can not shed
such blazonings upon the deeper truths in man, as will sometimes
proceed from his own profoundest gloom. Utter darkness is then his
light, and cat-like he distinctly sees all objects through a medium
which is mere blindness to common vision.” (Herman Melville)
There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that, compared to “normal”
individuals, artists, writers, and creative people in general, are both
psychologically “sicker”—that is, they score higher on a wide variety
of measures of psychopathology—and psychologically healthier (for
example, they show quite elevated scores on measures of self-confidence
and ego strength).
Definitions of ‘sick’ and ‘well’ may not always be helpful. Perhaps
psychology itself is ‘abnormal’ and will benefit from new paradigms of
what it is to be human as creative people embrace their complex psyches.
Creativity and madness: The Abnormal Psychology of Creativity
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