I Am Not: “Exceptionally Creative”

Someone I know recently made the claim that Schizophrenia and “exceptional creativity” are “practically the same”.

This stems from a very common misconception that I see, regarding the understanding of Schizophrenia and other schizotypal spectrum disorders (Schizotypal Personality Disorder, Schizoid Personality Disorder, Paranoid Personality Disorder and in some cases Schizoaffective Disorder). Specifically, stemming from ignoring the negative effects it can have on ones life in favor of the positive, in order to try to paint the spectrum as nothing but shiny rainbows and glitter.

While well intended, this is an overall problem for a few reasons.

First of all, it reduces overall awareness of the conditions. Creativity and other social boons can very much be a factor of someone’s life with schizotypal spectrum disorders. However, these are just parts of an overall whole. Other components, which can negatively impact the person’s ability to function, no longer have focus and thus are not being addressed. If the person in question is having struggles with these aspects, ignoring them will not help them deal with them. Their needs become unmet, which can negatively impact one’s mental and physical health overall. Likewise, ignoring the boons in favor of the negative effects strips the person of their chance to reclaim their situation, turning it into an experience that can benefit them as a whole throughout their life.

Awareness, be it of mental illness or physical disability, includes all of the effects, not just positive or negative. To ignore one in favor of the other strips the depth from the experience, and strains us not just individually, but as a whole. The experiences of an individual being erased doesn’t just harm them, but all of us because then the support and awareness that we all need to thrive are strained. And sometimes, they’re not offered at all.

Second, it shows an overall poor understanding of how various mental conditions and their treatments work. Levels of creativity are high in people with schizotypal traits, largely because of how the brain works as a result. [1] Impacted logical thought and disorganized thinking can result in more abstract thinking, a catalyst often utilized for art. The difference here is the source of that abstract thinking. By painting the effects of these disorders on the thinking process of the brain as “practically the same” as being creative, we ignore the root cause of why the person in question being compared is creative or has a thinking pattern commonly utilized for creativity.

There is also the fact that art therapy is often utilized in order to help people with schizotypal spectrum disorders to communicate. [2] Disorganized thinking, utilizing words and grammar in different fashions than our given society is used to and abstract thought can make communication with others very difficult and strained. People with schizotypal spectrum disorders are often strongly affected by the ability to communicate with language. Utilizing art and being able to communicate emotion rather than words can help us communicate with the outside world in a way that they would otherwise not understand, because they cannot come into our heads and see, feel or think the way that we do. This can help with treatment for the conditions, allowing us to communicate with our therapists or psychologists. This can be especially helpful during flares or episodes, where such thinking patterns are amplified and even during other situations where we could adequately articulate how we feel, such methods are not possible at the time.

All in all, the general attitude comes from assumptions that result in significant erasure of the experiences of the mentally ill. Regardless of good intentions, the attitude has a number of negative effects and needs to be addressed.

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1. Weinstein S., Graves R.E. Are creativity and schizotypy products of a right hemisphere bias? (2002) Brain and Cognition, 49 (1), pp. 138-151.
2. BBC News, September 14 2008.