There may be an overlap between the genetic components of creativity and those of some psychiatric disorders, according to a new study that came to my attention courtesy of the Passive Guy.
In the study, researchers looked at genetic material from more than 86,000 people in Iceland and identified genetic variants that were linked with an increased risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The investigators then looked for these variants in a group of more than 1,000 people who were members of national societies of artists, including visual artists, writers, actors, dancers and musicians in Iceland.
The study revealed that the people in these artistic societies were 17 percent more likely to carry those variants linked with the mental health conditions than were people in the general population, who were not members of these societies.
“The results of this study should not have come as a surprise, because to be creative, you have to think differently from the crowd,” study author Kari Stefansson said. “And we had previously shown that carriers of genetic factors that predispose to schizophrenia do so.”
In a previous study, researchers found that creative professionals were at an increased risk of having bipolar disorder. People who were writers in particular, were more likely to be diagnosed with psychiatric disorders in general.
Previous research has also shown that family members of people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are over-represented in creative professions.
It is not clear whether the genetic link found in the study may apply to people who feel they are creative, or only to those who actually produce high-quality creative work.
The Flip Side: Bibliotherapy
Ironically enough, writers can help other regain their psychological balance. As The New Yorker explains, reading can make you happier. What is bibliotherapy, you ask?
After answering an initial questionnaire about your reading habits, your bibliotherapist, including reading habits, the question “What is preoccupying you at the moment?,” family’s history and fears, the therapist will suggest books you should read, tailored to your individual needs. The aim is to help you deal with the daily emotional challenges of existence.
Bibliotherapy, turns out, is a very broad term for the ancient practice of encouraging reading for therapeutic effect. The first use of the term is usually dated to a jaunty 1916 article in The Atlantic Monthly, “A Literary Clinic.” In it, the author describes stumbling upon a “bibliopathic institute” run by an acquaintance, Bagster, in the basement of his church, from where he dispenses reading recommendations with healing value.
“Bibliotherapy is…a new science,” Bagster explains. “A book may be a stimulant or a sedative or an irritant or a soporific. The point is that it must do something to you, and you ought to know what it is. A book may be of the nature of a soothing syrup or it may be of the nature of a mustard plaster.”
To a middle-aged client with “opinions partially ossified,” Bagster gives the following prescription: “You must read more novels. Not pleasant stories that make you forget yourself. They must be searching, drastic, stinging, relentless novels.” (George Bernard Shaw is at the top of the list.)
Bagster is finally called away to deal with a patient who has “taken an overdose of war literature,” leaving the author to think about the books that “put new life into us and then set the life pulse strong but slow.”
For all avid readers who have been self-medicating with great books their entire lives, it comes as no surprise that reading books can be good for your mental health and your relationships with others, but exactly why and how is now becoming clearer, thanks to new research on reading’s effects on the brain.
Since the discovery, in the mid-nineties, of “mirror neurons”—neurons that fire in our brains both when we perform an action ourselves and when we see an action performed by someone else—the neuroscience of empathy has become clearer.
When people read about an experience, they display stimulation within the same neurological regions as when they go through that experience themselves. We draw on the same brain networks when we’re reading stories and when we’re trying to guess at another person’s feelings.
Find out more by reading the original post on The New Yorker!
How interesting, thanks! It certainly is thought provoking…
Hi Nicholas, I love your blog and found this post particularly pertinent to some research I’ve been doing myself lately. Not the reading as therapy, which is a wonderful point, but the genetic link between creativity and bipolar disorder. My cousin is bipolar, and I suspect others in my family are as well…we are a crazy, but creative lot. My cousin was studying to get her doctorate in music history and was on her way to become a noted concert pianist. One month before her doctoral thesis was complete she had a complete breakdown. She was put on strong medication and never completed her thesis. Now, years later, she is going to a therapist who was an army therapist. Before one of their sessions she noticed several exquisite paintings and asked if he knew the artist. He said, “Yes, he was a patient of mine in the army. He was quite depressed and was diagnosed with bipolar. We got his depression under control, but afterwards he could not draw anything but stick figures.”
When she told me that story, I was horrified. She said, well it’s better than being so manic depressive.
You know, she can’t listen to classical music anymore without feeling some of her symptoms return. She thinks the music triggers the symptoms. I think the fact that she can no longer touch that aspect of herself is what triggers her depression.
I have been on antidepressant medications. I can’t write while I am on them. I would rather face depression than lose my creative self. I would rather die.
It’s a terrible thing to have to choose between, but there are other ways to combat many mental illnesses. It’s a tragedy that the medical profession takes the easy way out.
Thank you for giving this simple therapy. Hope, read and Write On!
Amazing! Thank you so much for sharing these stories. I pray no one has to choose between mental illness and creativity…
Fascinating observation. It makes a lot of sense, although I don’t believe that all creatives may have or be suffering from a particular ailment. Lifestyle, upbringing, life altering crisis can all have enough affect one one’s psyche to stimulate the creativity. Writing is a therapy for many, as comedy is a therapy for many who suffer depression.
An interesting point. I’ve heard of way too many comedians who suffer from depression, for it to be a coincidence.
A sad truth sometimes. 🙂
I’m also not in the least bit surprised, Nicholas. I love the idea of the “neuroscience of empathy.” The ability to live multiple complete lives in our heads with all the loves, losses, and trauma is different from the “normal” person who might experience vicarious empathy with characters in a movie or book. We lived it! For that reason, I think reality and fiction get a bit blurry in our experiential memory… and it’s all perception anyway, so what exactly is real? Great post 🙂
That very question – the nature of reality – is my favorite theme, as you know 🙂
Likewise. And the best part is there are no answers!
Well that comes as no surprise to me! How many actors, singers, artists, authors can you think of over the years who have led dramatic lives in some way, or suffered from depression, or committed suicide, or took risks and ‘lived dangerously’, possibly shortening their lives? I’ve often wondered about this. Now here is some proof. Fascinating, Nick. ?
I thought so, too. Thank you 🙂
Very interesting! Both the idea that those who create books are on the fringes of “normalcy,” and also that reading can help those in mental distress. That’s another reason to keep writing (and reading, of course).
Absolutely 🙂
I’ve often wondered if poetry is more associated with psychiatric disorders than other genre. The number of suicides among famous female poets is pretty alarming.
Wow. I didn’t know that.
No doubt this is true. Rblogging
Thank you so much for sharing! 🙂
Found that all very interesting. Thanks for sharing, Nicholas. 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
You are always so helpful and encouraging. 🙂
Aw you! *blush* 🙂
You must bear the truth, no matter the weight. 😉
LOL 😀
Reading as therapy is almost a no-brainer – writing as therapy probably should be as well, especially with fiction, but I suspect is less demonstrated for most people – except those who actually are plagued with ‘bad’ mental health. I’m neither schizophrenic, nor bi-polar, but am a chronic depressive who has mood swings and borderline OCD tendencies and have, at times, experienced psychotic episodes during periods of adverse lifestyle stress.
As a writer, I’ve found that tapping into the negative side of emotional life especially is indeed intensely therapeutic and lends an authenticity to writing about topics such as PTSD and genocide (from the perspective of both perpetrator and ‘victim’) that strikes a chord with readers, even though I’ve never lived in a war zone of any description.
So, yes. I think those people with a predisposition for mental illness can be very creative in the arts, or indeed other areas of academic achievement and the sciences but perhaps writing, as therapy, is more obviously useful/practical to people who often have great difficulty in communicating with, or relating to others on a social level especially. Arguably music is as important, whether by voice or instrument, as alternative creative outlet for someone who has a problem with functioning in a ‘normal’ world.
Shah Wharton, a paranormal horror writer, runs a regular monthly ‘Mental Muse’ feature on her blog and it’s amazing to read about the problems faced by creative types plagued with mental health issues, and how their particular art helps them deal with the world and function more productively within it. I highly recommend a visit there as a means of inspiration, even if you’re blessed with a peaceful cerebral existence 🙂
Thank you for the tip! I have yet to meet an author whose work doesn’t stem from some sort of trauma.
What an interesting post! Since I did a little research in neuroscience at one time, I am not surprised that the brain’s electrical activity would mirror actually doing an activity while just reading about it. They can train the brain to relieve the phantom pain from the loss of an arm by placing the remaining arm next to a mirror and have the person put the real arm go through various actions, mirrored by the other arm. So much we don’t understand about the brain.
PS Thanks for the tweet today!
The brain is a fascinating thing. And you’re welcome 🙂
Insanity and genius have long gone hand in hand. As Caroline Lamb said of Byron, he was “Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.”
As for Iceland, long winters and midnight sun probably do more to explain the statistics.
Best wishes, Pete.
Lol – you’re the second person to suggest geography had a role to play 😀
It could be that the arts are used as a coping mechanism. Reading is a powerful tool and no doubt would have a big influence on ones outlook. The thought of it being used as therapy is amusing – you could spend a long time overdosing on War and Peace.
Leslie
Good point 😀
Fascinating study, but not at all surprising to those of us who have used bibliotherapy for a lifetime before it had a name. And it seems proven that there is a fine line between creativity in its highest form and mental health issues. Makes you wonder if the struggle is so worth it in the long run. Doesn’t it ?
I’d say it is worth it 🙂
Me, too. ☺
That explains a lot. Having spent 6 months in Iceland, I’m not surprised this study was done there–I mean, you wouldn’t have far to walk in any direction to find suitable subject matter.
Lol – I have to take your word for it 🙂
Not surprising, but fascinating nonetheless.
Isn’t it just? 🙂
For some reason, this doesn’t surprise me. Part of it is probably because you see a lot of articles online talking about how famous artists had a condition of some kind. It’s hard to take them seriously at times because many go with whatever the ‘popular’ condition is at the time. Still some of it rings true. After all, we define many mental conditions as people acting beyond the norm. Artists do that all the time.
How true!
Funny. If that is the case, which would mean that the Alpsinien-Germans and Alpsiniens-French (that’s how I called these folks on the mountains) might have the same symptoms. I remembered my 70 years old neighbor who seems to always complaining about the same thing everyday when I see him … He said, “All I see here are mountains! Mountains! Everywhere! Reminded me of the times when my wife’s breasts are still that firm. Now, those are empty mountains. Huh!” Then he just walked away and grumbling like he always do … LOL
That is Mount-Polar, I guess! 😀
Ha ha – a mount polar sufferer indeed 😀
Oh yes … that poor old man had been living his whole life. He was never really outside of his comfort zone … He said he never need of anything else outside his town. He just love it there! He always teased me as “Heidi” because I am small. LOL
Well, Socrates used to boast that he had only left Athens once – to fight in a war. Perhaps your old man is a misunderstood genius 😉
Fascinating but not surprising in the least. I think sometimes you’d need to be a little loopy to create some of the plots I’ve read and the characters I’ve met.
Hugs
Lol – absolutely 😀
Hugs!