Creativity & Schizophrenia
Antonio Preti
A
WORLD OF TALENT
The
hypothesis of a non casual link between creativity and mental illness dates back
to the time of Ancient Greece. Plato indicated “mania” as one of the
elements of poetic creation: whoever was lacking the ability to let himself
overwhelmed by enthusiasm, and stirred by creative ecstasy would’nt be able to
give life to authentic poetry. To hear the god’s voice and give heed to it was
for Plato the essential condition for poetic creation. In a text dated slightly
after this period, the author of the fragment known as “Problemata XXX”, now
included in the Aristotelian canon, indicated some elements that for him were
common to the great creators and the most eminent people of his time: the
propensity to melancholia, the proneness to profound emotional perturbation and
the tendency to abuse wine or other substances capable of altering the mind (Starobinski,
1960).
Over
the centuries, the theme of a link between melancholia and genius has emerged
many times. Alberto Magno, who wrote at the end of Middle Ages, recuperated the
thesis of Problemata XXX, noting, however, that only the less severe forms of
melancholia can favour the development of «constant and solid spirit» (Klibansky
et al, 1983). Alexander Neckam (who died in 1217) also attributed melancholic
mood with a power over the “vis immaginativa “(ability to phantasize) and
the “vis cogitativa” (intellectual abilities) (Klibansky et al, 1983). The
ability of some disordered states of mind
to potentiate creative talent was seen as a particular gift granted to the
patient by his disease.
When
the Arabic conception prevailed that the disordered states of mind should be
conceived as only symptoms of an illness, the idea of an “inspiring” power
declined. For the physician trained according to Arabic theories the
“prophetici divinatores “ (diviners who prophesy) were patients to be cured
like all other people exhausted by their daily colloquies with angels or demons.
In
the Fifteenth century the idea that madness could be the source of genius
resurged among philosophers and men
of letters who drew their inspiration from Aristotile’s works, which were in
fact reintroduced into Western culture by the Arabs (Klibansky et al, 1983).
Eccentricity and the propensity to bizarreness became, during the Renaissance, a
trait to which the artist had to conform. As a consequence, the choice of an
artistic profession was seen as a sign of extravagance. Buonarroti‘s family,
for example, according to Ascanio Condivi, coworker and biographer of
Michelangelo, judged inopportune his decision to become a sculptor: the father
even tried beating his son to change his mind. It was not rare that an artist,
even a talented one, lived a meagre and frustrated existence (Wittkower and
Wittkower, 1963).
Prejudice
against the artist possessed by his work but unconcerned by clothes, cleanliness,
food, family and decency lasted until Eighteenth century. The biographies of
artists are rich with anecdotes concerning their extravagant and capricious
habits. Michelangelo Buonarroti was famous for his passionate nature. Leonardo
da Vinci, on the contrary, appeared imperturbable and discreet to his
contemporanies as though devoid of emotions. The painter Caravaggio was known as
emotionally unstable and violent. With the successful affirmation of a
respectable role for artists, who were even taken into the Courts of Europe, the
image of extravagance and unconventionality faded, being replaced by the figure
of the cosmopolitan and charming genius.