Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a psychological illness that causes disruptions in a person's mood, energy, and ability to complete social activities. It is a disorder that often occurs in adulthood, between the ages of 15-35, and is seen equally in men and women.
The relationship between creativity and psychopathology has been an interesting subject since ancient times. Following the studies describing the characteristics of creative people, researchers began to conduct studies examining the relationship between mood disorders and creativity since the last quarter of the twentieth century (Jamison 1993, Teber 2004, Lloyd-Evans et al. 2006).
Creativity, It functions similarly to problem-solving skills with an original way of thinking; It is the ability and process of creating a new work, idea or invention that is useful for one or more of the aesthetic, scientific and social aspects. Research shows that neurotic personality traits can turn into artistic creativity, and bipolar disorders provoke creativity. The period in which creativity and creativity products are most manifested is considered to be the hypomanic period (Goodwin and Jamison 2007). Hypomanic features have been found to increase creative performance and have been shown to be related to creative thoughts, attitudes and behaviors.
It has been observed that the creative thought process resembles hypomanic flight of thoughts rather than the scattered associations in schizophrenia. One of the most distinctive features of the manic thought process is thought acceleration and positive affect. It is also known that people feel more creative, more energetic and stronger. Many famous artists have bipolar disorder. For example; It appears that many artists, including Van Gogh, Virginia Woolf, Stephen Hawking, Victor Hugo, Robie Williams, Isaac Newton, Balzac, Abraham Lincoln and Kurt Cobain, were diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
When we look at the life of the writer Balzac, who defined himself as "either everything or nothing", we can see a typical mania character. All activities in your life are carried out in extremes. The artist, who said that he was suffering from depression, stated that he was in a chaotic impasse between his expectations in life and the reality in real life.
It can be thought that he generally created his works to protect himself from depression. It is known that Beethoven, one of the first names that comes to mind when classical music is mentioned, was also bipolar. It is said that Beethoven, who often had mental problems throughout his life, relapsed especially as he got older.
Kurt Cobain chose death when he was 27 years old. Many sources state that Cobain lived a life between happiness and depression. Jim Carrey movies we watch with pleasure... He made a confession when he was popular; “The secret of my success in the comedies I took part in at that time was the depression I experienced.”
March 30, Van Gogh's birthday, was chosen to raise awareness of bipolar disorder. The famous painter's bipolar symptoms were quite severe and he was as depressed as he was creative. In one of these symptoms, Van Gogh cut off a piece of his own ear. While the bright colors used by Van Gogh in his paintings "Starry Night" and "Sunflowers" emphasize liveliness and exhaustion, in his famous painting "Wheat Field and Crows" he used brown and dark tones that evoke death. Despite their troubled lives, they are all very creative and unforgettable names in the art world.
Read: 0
