Creativity & Schizophrenia
Antonio Preti
January 2006
THE
MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE 1
Bruno
Bettheleim used the methaphor of the Fortress to denote those characteristics of
infantile autism that make the sufferer inaccessible to the majority of people.
The difficult relations with these children are due only in part to their
illness: indeed, autistic children build barriers to defend their inner world.
Studies on creatively talented autistic people show that their inner world may
be intense, deep and rich, although carefully guarded (Sacks, 1995).
Also
in the more severe forms of schizophrenia patients seem withdrawn, as if closed
in a Castle from which they witness the outer world. No sentiments or emotions
appeared to cross the boundaries of the empty fortress in which these patients
seem locked. But in the
A
link between creativity and severe psychopathologies has been proposed to
explain the persistence, in the general population, of behavioural disorders
that are poorly adaptive and burdened by high rates of premature mortality and
disability. Creativity is one of the cognitive functions that contribute to
socio-biological adaptation. It can be defined as the ability that allows the
production of new or unusual associations among known ideas or concepts, with
potential usefulness for the individual and/or the community. Creativity
involves those cognitive abilities that shape new associations of known elements,
emotional associations allowing to identify the impact of the creations on
settled habits, and the social competence necessary to negotiate creations
acceptance and support. Such a large array of abilities, framed on a richly
interlaced set of brain networks, is probably related to manifold genes, and the
genes that are supposed to support severe mental disorders might combine with in
very many different ways.
Factors
explaining the possible contribution of the schizophrenic style of thought to
creativity have been investigated: the broadening of attention, the preference
for complex and asymmetrical designs, and the access to unusual dimensions of
the mind, typical elements of schizophrenia, were reported to be relevant. Two
biographical sketches, concerning the sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick and the Swiss
novelist Robert Walser, will illustrate the influence of schizophrenia on the
life and work of two eminent artists.
1 All the heads of the paragraphs are titles taken from works of the science fiction writer PK Dick, whose experience of schizophrenia, both artistic and personal experience, is described in the article.