Creativity and Psychoticism: An Overinclusive Model

Abstract

Eysenck's theory of creativity is an attempt to provide a synthesis of ideas about creativity that he has been developing over a major part of his life. It is ambitious, courageous, and verging on the grandiose. It is clear that Eysenck is primarily interested in demonstrating that there is a genetic base for creativity. Personality as such is of little interest to him. The stated goal of Eysenck's project is to throw light on the nature of creativity and its relation to intelligence, personality, and genius. He tries to prove the existence of a causal chain from DNA to creativity through the concept of psychoticism-a chain implicating the intermediary action of hippocampal formation, neurotransmitters, and enzyme influences, which are presumed to explain the complex interaction among cognition, psychoticism, and creativity. Eysenck admits that his theory includes a lot of guesswork, but he states that, at this stage of investigation, all that can be demanded of a theoretical model is that it be testable. His reliance on the hypothetico-deductive methodology is offered as a guarantee to that effect. Eysenck begins by rejecting the adequacy of the most important current theories-namely, Campbell's (1960) blind-search and Simonton's (1988) chance theories of creativity. He believes that the search for neogenetic solutions to problems (Spearman's, 1931, terminology) is not blind but is guided by ideas of relevance. It is facilited by a particular cognitive style that lies at the basis of creativity and that is determined by personality. In short, the cornerstone of Eysenck's theory of creativity is the concept of psychoticism (P) as measured by the P scale. He considers it to be a major dimension of personality (like E and N). It is both a dispositional and a cognitive trait, genetically determined. The genes for psychoticism include a dysgenic potential; that is, they also carry traits that make for inclusive fitness (creativity, dominance). Psychoticism identifies a particular personality structure in which thinking is overinclusive; that is, thinking characterized by a broad associative horizon. Creative persons with such a structure have been shown to have affinities with schizophrenics, but they are not themselves psychotic. They are characterized by high levels of psychoticism as measured by Eysenck's Psychoticism Scale (P). Oddly enough, Eysenck himself has not administered this test to eminent creative artists and scientists. He mentions only one study (K. 0. G6tz & K. G6tz, 1979) of creative artists, some of whom were eminent, to whom P scores were administered. The current P scale