Personality: A Possible Bridge Between Creativity and Psychopathology?

Abstract

Several studies have been devoted to the relation between creativity and psychopathology, proposing conflicting associations between these variables. In addition, the investigation of personality traits present in highly creative people has been an important area of creativity research. Furthermore, the study of the relation between personality and psychopathology has been of relevant interest to psychiatrists and psychologists; nonetheless, creativity often has been ignored. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the relation among creativity, temperament and character, and psychopathological distress. A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted involving three groups: (a) highly creative people with outstanding artistic or scientific achievement, (b) control people without mental disorders, and (c) psychiatric outpatients. Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, Temperament and Character Inventory, and Symptom Check List-90 were administered to participants. The personality profile associated with a high creativity index included the following traits: high exploratory excitability, low harm avoidance, high persistence, high self-directedness, and high cooperativeness. Highly creative achievers scored low on psychopathology. There were strong negative correlations between creativity and psychopathology on all subscales. Further, psychopathology was more related to personality than to creativity. These findings suggest that the treatment of psychopathology when present could facilitate the development of the creative potential.