Researchers believe they have found a genetic link between artistic creativity and mental disorders such as schizophrenia, but the study is being criticized for not determining a proper definition of creativity.
The researchers said creativity is "difficult to define for scientific purposes," but they considered a creative person to be someone who takes "novel approaches requiring cognitive processes that are different from prevailing modes of thought or expression," King's College London reported.
"For most psychiatric disorders little is known about the underlying biological pathways that lead to illness. An idea that has gained credibility is that these disorders reflect extremes of the normal spectrum of human [behavior], rather than a distinct psychiatric illness. By knowing which healthy [behaviors], such as creativity, share their biology with psychiatric illnesses we gain a better understanding of the thought processes that lead a person to become ill and how the brain might be going wrong," said Robert Power, first author from the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre at the IoPPN. "Our findings suggest that creative people may have a genetic predisposition towards thinking differently which, when combined with other harmful biological or environmental factors, could lead to mental illness."
The research, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, used data from genetic database the deCODE library, which consists of DNA code samples taken from the Icelandic population. The researchers believe their findings back up a direct influence on creativity of genes seen in people with disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Past research has shown psychiatric disorders tend to be common in families where creative professions are prevalent. To gain more insight into this link, the researchers looked at 86,292 individuals from the general population of Iceland. Creative individuals in the population were defined as those belonging to the national artistic societies of actors, dancers, musicians, visual artists and writers. They determined genetic risk scores for both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder were higher in those who fell into this "creative" category.
Despite the proposed link, the findings have been met with criticism. One problem is the increased risk of psychosis pointed out in the report could be seen as misleading. The variants used in the study can only account for about 6 percent of schizophrenia and 1 percent of bipolar disorder; and can explain only 1 percent of artistic ability, the Verge reported. Another problem is that there does not appear to be a clear definition of creativity applied in the study.
"Creativity is simply defined by occupation," psychologist Judith Shlesinger, author of "The Insanity Hoax: Exposing the Myth of the Mad Genius" argued, according to the Verge. "[And this presumes two things. The first is] that there are no creative accountants or lawyers who play music, paint, or dance wonderfully on the weekends, preferring to actually earn a living during the week. [The second is that] everyone who self-defines as a writer, artist, and joins an artistic association, automatically qualifies as unusually creative. [The idea is] scientifically hollow, but convenient for their purposes."
