Genius and madness are laying close together
At least that's the cliché, right?
Is that really true?
Well, at least various researches show that there is somehow a connection between mental illness and creativity. Some scientists have also a theory, why this is so.
"Just as madness, in a higher sense, is the beginning of all wisdom, so schizophrenia is the beginning of all art, of all imagination."
These are the words of Hermann Hesse in his novel "Steppenwolf". But I don't remember the book completely.
Already since the antiquity there is this superstition that genius and insanity lie close together, perhaps even spread by Aristotle and Seneca? At least these were occupied with the topic.... Also in the today's perception the cliché of the ingenious, but crazy scientist, writer, musician, or also painter holds itself between melancholy and mad creative power.
If you watch documentaries or talk to people who have experienced mentally ill people in a clinic, you might reject this idea of the creative madmen. Often they are listless or so confused in the head that they can not even concentrate on the simplest and everyday things.
How can someone like that create a creative work at all?
Nevertheless, this cliché has persisted over the centuries, that genius and madness belong together in some form.
Apparently it is nevertheless a fascinating topic for many people. The genius and its madness. Like the prime example, the world famous painter Vincent van Gogh, who in his madness cut off his ear. Some are captivated by the outlandish, eccentric idiosyncrasies of artists, others want to make sense of their own mental state.
Perhaps this is why many scientists have searched for evidence for the genius-madness thesis in the last decades and have found it several times.
Many are particularly interested in finding out which famous people of past eras had which mental illness. In the 90s there were two extensive studies on this, one was by a British man named Felix Post, the other by the US American Arnold Ludwig. Both studies were able to show that celebrities, scientists, painters, actors and many artists suffer above average from mental illness.
However, Hermann Hesse's rigorous thesis that you have to be crazy to be successful as a creative artist is not tenable. Because it does not apply to all artists. It is said that a maximum of 45% were once affected in a study.
Why be normal? But you don't have to be crazy right away 😜🙏🏼🎨💯💃🤗😁
However, the study of celebrities has several methodological problems. They are almost always remote diagnoses based on descriptions of contemporaries and on autobiographical writings, to name just one problem, which is why some analyses do not quite work out or are simply wrong.
Genetic
One clue as to where this link between mental illness and creativity might come from is genetics. Researchers know, in part from family studies, that the tendency toward schizophrenia is also influenced by genetic makeup. In 2002, scientists found a gene they suspect is linked to this mental illness, I think its called neuregulin 1. If i am wrong feel free to correct me, I am not a scientist, just an artist 😁😜🎨💯
Two variants of this gene in particular are common in humans, C and T. People who carry the T variant on both chromosome copies have a significantly increased risk of psychosis, scientists say.
In 2009, the psychiatrist Szabolcs Kéri of Hungary's Semmelweis University studied ~200 subjects to see which variants of the neuregulin 1 gene they carried in their genomes. He also asked these people questions designed to stimulate their creativity. Such questions as:
"Imagine that there were threads hanging down from clouds to the earth. What would happen?"
Very surreal questions. Many answered something like:
"I would climb up the threads to the clouds".
Another again said:
"I would knit a blanket to cover and protect the earth".
Mr. Szabolcs Kéri sorted the answers of the subjects according to originality and thus created a creativity index for each subject. He also found that the subjects of two T-variants were much more creative than those of two C-variants. In between were those who carried T on one chromosome and C on the other.
Dueses means, according to the researchers, that a gene associated with mental illness may also affect creativity.
But also may. Its not the only effect and illnesses have a looot of reasons. This should be only a simple explanation that the old quote:
Genius and madness are laying close together.
Is not true to 100 %. Only to ~45 % which is even less than fifty... So most artists are quite 'normal crazy' like everybody else tooooooooo. 😜😂😉😋💃💯🎨🙏🏼
And now lets rock on with my artwork progress...
step by step
Finished Creation
This was the topic of my inspiration today. I was drawing the woman a bit in a Harleyqueen style to show the madness. This is why she has the warrior painting under her eye. Again a red head because I like red hair at the moment for my artworks. Blonde and brown, white or black are tooo boring to me at the moment. Lol
What you think?
Feel free to leave a comment.
Your @akida aka TrinityArt
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Fabulously done 🤗❤️💕❤️❤️🤗
Thank you, muito obrigada my friend @itsostylish 🤗💯🙏🏼🎨🐈💃 hope you have a beautiful Sunday ☀️