Creativity and mental illness: a prevalent stereotype.

Abstract

Although researchers conceptualize creativity in very positive ways (Eisenman, 1968; Piers, 1968), the stereotype of the creative or talented person has often been that he is crazy or mentally ill. Perhaps mental illness and creativity are linked because of known deviant behavior of some famous people, e.g., van Gogh's cutting off his ear. In any event, some surprising results emerged while the author was teaching a one-quarter course in mental hygiene at a large state university. There were 12 students in the course, most of them undergraduate seniors majoring in psychology. During one class session, with all 12 Ss present, the author asserted that there was no research evidence to support the stereotype that creative people were likely to be mentally ill. Then, the following question was included on a true-false test administered as part of the course: Research evidence clearly shows a positive relationship between creativiry and mental The test was administered approximately 2 wk. after the author talked about the absence of a link between creativity and mental illness. Surprisingly, 10 of the 12 Ss answered true indicating that they believed there was a relationship between creativiry and mental illness. If we anticipate chat only half will the answer correct the surprising behavior of the 10 Ss yields a binomial p of .038 (two-tailed test). This finding is surprising because students are usually able to give the teacher what he wants in order to get a good grade, regardless of their personal beliefs. Perhaps the stereotype about creativity and mental illness is so strong that classroom discussion could not change it. Throughout history, deviant behaviors, including creativity, have been denigrated. Of course, it is possible that the teacher's presentation was confusing or unclear, such that no change in Ss' stereocype occurred.