Schizophrenia and Creativity

by Lena U Carlsson

Above: "Waterfall with Deer" by Carl Fredrik Hill,
reproduced with permission from The Swedish National Gallery in Stockholm.

Read more about Carl Fredrik Hill

Schizophrenia is a common disease found in all human cultural societies. This may be explained by the evolution. There seems to be a connection between the genes (see picture of DNA helix) behind mental illness, and creativity. Many famous artists have for instance been schizophrenic. "Without their genes man might still live in caves." (Statement made by the Icelandic scientist Jon Karlsson about mentally ill persons and their relatives.) Mental diseases are documented far back in history and occur in all human cultures. Schizophrenia is the result of a combination of hereditary and environmental factors. But why have the mental illnesses not been removed during evolution through natural selection, the way unfavorable genes usually are?

Evolutionary Aspects

The incidence of schizophrenia exceeds by far the expected spontaneous frequency of mutations. Man evolved from a primitive creature to a member of highly developed societies in merely two million years. This is a surprisingly rapid progress. Could it be that evolution has taken a short cut? Might the genes behind psychical illness involve certain benefits? Such mechanisms have been shown to exist. For instance certain individuals living in Africa and other tropical regions suffer from a hereditary kind of anemia called sickle cell anemia (see picture). The carriers of a single set of genes for sickle cell anemia contract a mild form of the illness. At the same time they are protected against malaria. The carriers with a double set of genes, however, have a serious form of the anemia. The malaria parasite survives inside the red blood cells, which are changed in sickle cell anemia. The exact explanation for this protection against malaria is still not known. Another example of a relation between positive and negative hereditary traits concerns near-sightedness. A lot of studies indicate that near-sightedness could be correlated with intellectual achievement. However in this case the underlying genetic mechanisms are probably more complex.

Are Schizophrenics more Creative?

Many famous scientists and artists of various kinds have suffered from mental diseases. The composers George Frederic Handel and Robert Schumann, the painter Carl Fredrik Hill, and the mathematician Isaac Newton (see portrait) are just a few examples. According to scientific investigations the occurrence of psychical illness is indeed more frequent among prominent artists and scientists as opposed to the general public. Research results further show that mentally ill persons and their healthy relatives are more creative than the average. However, it remains to be proven that the reasons for these phenomena are genetic. The most reliable studies have chiefly dealt with depression and manic depressive disease. Much work is needed to establish a relation between other psychical illnesses and creativity.

"Strong Genes"

The more children you have, the wider the spread of your genes. But schizophrenic persons have fewer children than others. How come their genes have been able to survive to such a high extent? One answer could be that schizophrenic and manic depressive individuals have certain genes in common which are coupled to a high creative ability.

Above left: "The Creation of Adam", painting by Ernst Josephson of , reproduced with permission from The Swedish National Gallery.

Read more about Ernst Josephson

These common genes might perhaps sometimes be expressed as schizophrenia and sometimes as manic depression, depending on other genes and the environment. This reasoning is based on the assumption that schizophrenia and creativity really are connected. Whatever reason lies behind the high incidence of schizophrenia, there are numerous examples of schizophrenic persons with considerable creative power. Those persons have also served as a source of inspiration for others. For instance, works of art made by schizophrenics became important models for many of the surrealists and for Picasso.

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