The pervasive idea that madness and creativity are intricately linked is one that holds tremendous fascination for both scientists and the general public alike. Although this view was, at first, largely driven by anecdotal evidence showcasing the manifestation of mental illness in individuals who exhibited extraordinary levels of creativity in various spheres of life, it initiated a strong impetus to empirically investigate the association between madness and creativity.Several approaches (and combinations of approaches) have been adopted to address this association including clinical, personality, psychometric, behavioral, cognitive, historiometric, neuroscientific, and so on. Despite the ever accumulating body of evidence over the past 5-6 decades to investigate the link, what is lacking is a comprehensive integration of the disparate findings from the different approaches that will enable us to answer the ultimate question of whether there is an empirically founded relationship between creativity and mental illness. And if so, what is the nature of this association? |