Creativity and madness

[Edward theurj Berge]

We explored this theme in two recent threads, "Black Swan" and "horror & spirituality." Here's an article that explores the relationship between creativity and schizophrenia. A few excerpts:

"Brain scans reveal striking similarities in the thought pathways of highly creative people and those with schizophrenia. Both groups lack important receptors used to filter and direct thought. It could be this uninhibited processing that allows creative people to 'think outside the box,' say experts from Sweden's Karolinska Institute.

"Creativity is known to be associated with an increased risk of depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Similarly, people who have mental illness in their family have a higher chance of being creative. Associate Professor Fredrik Ullen believes his findings could help explain why. He looked at the brain's dopamine (D2) receptor genes which experts believe govern divergent thought. He found highly creative people who did well on tests of divergent thought had a lower than expected density of D2 receptors in the thalamus - as do people with schizophrenia.

"The thalamus serves as a relay centre, filtering information before it reaches areas of the cortex, which is responsible, amongst other things, for cognition and reasoning. Fewer D2 receptors in the thalamus probably means a lower degree of signal filtering, and thus a higher flow of information from the thalamus,' said Professor Ullen. He believes it is this barrage of uncensored information that ignites the creative spark. This would explain how highly creative people manage to see unusual connections in problem-solving situations that other people miss. Schizophrenics share this same ability to make novel associations. But in schizophrenia, it results in bizarre and disturbing thoughts."

[Edward theurj Berge]

From "Why a touch of madness boosts creativity" at this link:

"Anthony Storr told the annual meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Birmingham that genius tended to be born of madness. 'Creativity should be linked with mental instability,' he said.... Dr Storr said recurrent manic depression was common among writers and poets. Extreme mood swings or mania could provide creative people with depths of insight and emotional intensity that so-called normal people could never achieve.

"While severe mental illness normally precluded creative work, men and women of genius tended to have a mental disorder. "Those who are at ease with themselves are just not motivated, so we should not be surprised that many creative people are disturbed," Dr Storr said.

"Philosophers and mathematicians tended to be loners, incapable of forming long-term relationships with anything other than their work. Newton, Descartes, Pascal, Hobbs, Nietszche, Kant, Lichtenstein and Spinoza never married. "They formed a relationship with the abstract that made it impossible for them to form a personal relationship," Dr Storr said. 'They were much more interested in a relationship between numbers or abstracts than with people.'

[xibalba]

Euphemistically speaking, KW would say about these "nuts" that they are in love with God in the third language.

Georg Cantor, the great german mathematician of infinity was that kind of dude. he worked on orders and magnitudes  of infinities and zeroes, created a number Aleph bigger that infinity. He was subject to  "nervous breakdowns" and died while he was working on ALeph *, a transfinite number bigger than Aleph.  Jesa speaking of abstract creatvity. ahahha

Cantor believed his theory of transfinite numbers had been communicated to him by God. David Hilbert, also a very gifted  german mathematician, defended him from its critics (Wittegenstein hated Cantor´s  set theory) by famously declaring: "No one shall expel us from the Paradise that Cantor has created.

I read once that John Lilly, the neurophysiologist and dolphin researcher, a stereotype of the "mad scientist", creator of floatation tanks for deep relaxation in stimuli reduction environment (I bought such a tank in the end of the seventies, great stuff), a "genious" in other words, said that people like Cantor were true masters of the Yoga of the West, Mathematics. An interesting metaphor .

 

I like "mad" poets like the german Hölderlin and Rilke, the french Antonin Artaud, de Nerval and surrealists like André Breton fro exaample. Their words are an expression of a vision of incredible depths.

 

 

[xibalba]

And an addendum just for more "metaphysical connotative context" around the work of that great dude

 

from wiki:

"... .. Some Christian theologians saw Cantor's work as a challenge to the uniqueness of the absolute infinity in the nature of God.^[4] In particular, Neo-Thomist thinkers saw the existence of an actual infinity that consisted of something other than God as jeopardizing "God's exclusive claim to supreme infinity".^[54] Cantor strongly believed that this view was a misinterpretation of infinity, and was convinced that set theory could help correct this mistake:^[55]

“

... the transfinite species are just as much at the disposal of the intentions of the Creator and His absolute boundless will as are the finite numbers.[56]

”

Cantor also believed that his theory of transfinite numbers ran counter to both materialism and determinism—and was shocked when he realized that he was the only faculty member at Halle who did not hold to deterministic philosophical beliefs.^[57]

In 1888, Cantor published his correspondence with several philosophers on the philosophical implications of his set theory. In an extensive attempt to persuade other Christian thinkers and authorities to adopt his views, Cantor had corresponded with Christian philosophers such as Tilman Pesch and Joseph Hontheim,^[58] as well as theologians such as Cardinal Johannes Franzelin, who once replied by equating the theory of transfinite numbers with pantheism.^[5] Cantor even sent one letter directly to Pope Leo XIII himself, and addressed several pamphlets to him.^[55]

Cantor's philosophy on the nature of numbers led him to affirm a belief in the freedom of mathematics to posit and prove concepts apart from the realm of physical phenomena, as expressions within an internal reality. The only restrictions on this metaphysical system are that all mathematical concepts must be devoid of internal contradiction, and that they follow from existing definitions, axioms, and theorems. This belief is summarized in his famous assertion that "the essence of mathematics is its freedom."^[59] These ideas parallel those of Edmund Husserl.^[60]

Cantor's 1883 paper reveals that he was well aware of the opposition his ideas were encountering:

“

... I realize that in this undertaking I place myself in a certain opposition to views widely held concerning the mathematical infinite and to opinions frequently defended on the nature of numbers.[61]

”

Hence he devotes much space to justifying his earlier work, asserting that mathematical concepts may be freely introduced as long as they are free of contradiction and defined in terms of previously accepted concepts. He also cites Aristotle, Descartes, Berkeley, Leibniz, and Bolzano on infinity...."

 

Other "freaks "like him are often found flourishing in mathematic field.

Who could we imagine a Friedrich Gauss today?

They say that he had already done everything possible in mathematics at the age of 18 years old.

 

 

 

 

[Edward theurj Berge]

Here's another interesting study:

"History suggests that the line between creativity and madness is a fine one, but a small group of people known as schizotypes are able to walk it with few problems and even benefit from it.

"A new study confirms that their enhanced creativity may come from using more of the right side of the brain than the rest of us.

"In the spectrum between normal and insane, schizotypes generally fall somewhere in the middle. While they do not suffer many of the symptoms affecting schizophrenics, including paranoia, hallucinations and incoherent thoughts, schizotypes often exhibit their own eccentricities.

"'They may dress or carry themselves in a strange way,' says Bradley Folley, a graduate student in clinical psychology at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and the lead author of the study. 'They're not abnormal, they live normal lives but they often have idiosyncratic ways of thinking. Certain things may have special meaning for them or they may be more spiritually attuned.'

"Their brains were monitored using a brain-imaging technique called near-infrared optical spectroscopy.The scans showed that both sides of the brain in all three groups were active when making novel associations. However, in the brains of schizotypes, the activation of the right hemisphere was much higher compared to brains of the control subjects.

"Folley speculates that what may be happening is that schizotypes may either have more access to the right hemisphere than the average population or there may be more efficient communication between the two hemispheres.

[Edward theurj Berge]

Here's one of my favorites of the creatively mad, or madly creative. The one, the only, Lady Gaga:

[Edward theurj Berge]

See Lady Gaga's 2011 Grammy performance at this link of her new song "Born this way." It's in a menu below the featured video. For a better sound recording of the song visit Gaga's site.

[Mary W.]

Edward -- Did you see Anderson Cooper's interview with (and profile of) Lady Gaga on 60 Minutes this past Sunday? (Feb. 13). Previously I knew just the bare minimum about her, and I enjoyed and appreciated what she had to say.

[Balder]

Here's a poem on madness and inspiration that I've long loved.

 

[Edward theurj Berge]

Did you see Anderson Cooper's interview with (and profile of) Lady Gaga on 60 Minutes this past Sunday?

Not yet, but I found it at her website today and will watch it soon. Thanks for the tip.

[Edward theurj Berge]

From a review of Gaga's recent Madison Square Garden performance:

"Last night, I watched a grown women dance with bloodthirsty (but sexy!) monsters, set off firecrackers from her bra, and battle and defeat an evil, angry (and curiously cute) anglerfish while repeatedly posing like a cross and hinting that she is our salvation. Not only that, but this didn't take place in a mental institution, but in Madison Square Garden in front of thousands of screaming fans dressed equally outrageously. Yes, Lady Gaga is certifiably out of her mind, and yes, I absolutely love it.

"I am in no position to officially diagnose Gaga, but last night I certainly saw touches of schizophrenia. I actually would go so far as to say that at moments, I bet she really believed (for that moment) she was our lord and savior. That's how much she got lost in her performance last night. She gave us 110% to show us her fantastical, bizarre, twisted, and unfathomably creative mind.

"Thank you Gaga for being completely off your rocker and for owning it. You're empowering people in a way few others do. Hopefully, others in a position to empower others will follow your lead, without having to slay a creepy fish to do it."