Right now I am very fascinated by creativity as a phenomenon. What is it? And how is it connected to an individuals personality? I find myself in a the classic "chicken or egg"-situation. And why is mental issues such a common thing within the creative sphere? Also, there is a high percentage of introverted individuals within the same community. Why?
I will look into this further, but I'm posting my starting point, my hypothesis.
As I was talking about in my post Creativity demands creativity, creativity is a need or urge, not just a hobby or a want. To me it's then rather obvious why the mental issues have such high representation within this group of people. Were you not to find your "out", perhaps you are left unable to create due to writer's block, performance anxiety, exhaustion or any other reason. Anyway, this could, as I was getting at in the earlier post, drive anybody to the verge of insanity.
Now, if we shall look at the introverts. (something I am sure I will get into several times in future posts)
Introverts have a different view on the world than extroverts. This is actually biological. To make it easy one can say extroverts live directly through their senses. They see, smell, hear things and their senses are taking a short cut through their mind to register and be stored in the right areas. Now introverts on the other hand, they sense things..then that notion is bounced through several areas of their minds before finding the right spot to settle in. All their impressions has to go through the memory bank and all sorts of mind-rooms to be pondered, reflected upon and finally concluded. This is exactly why an introvert so easily tires in social situation. They are simply overwhelmed by all the impressions they have to run through miles and miles of nerve pathways.
Ok, this is all a little much, I hope you're following..
So, is it really that odd that this kind of person might see the world in a very different light? Notice things that otherwise go unnoticed? Then what would you do with this knowledge?
Children experience the world in this way. They have many situations every day where they have to fill in the blanks. They do not understand the connections, they cannot make a conclusion without creating explanations where they are lacking facts. And is there a more creative group of people than children? I'm gonna go ahead and say no. But somehow over the years, we learn to accept that we cannot hold all the facts, we stop questioning and believe we are using common sense where we, I believe, would be better off using a childlike creativity.
My theory is that just as scientists are basing their work on the hypothesis that dreams somehow helps us sort through impressions and that it is a necessary function for our well being, I believe that creativity does the same.
If you receive a million fractions of impressions every day, maybe your need for an out is bigger?
Maybe, if all this external stimuli is bouncing around in your mind, some of it will inevitably get stuck along the way. Just laying there, lingering, with no place to go but out.
So, in a way, creating for a creative person would be the same as dreaming while awake...
Make sense? A little?
I am willing to stand by this, since I know the feeling of getting into it. Sitting down, getting the flow going is almost as relaxing and rejuvenating to me as sleeping. It's my off-button. Though I'm very focused and I'm producing I don't think about anything else in the world. Nothing can really reach me in this state. And it is wonderful.
Wouldn't this also explain why and how some of these people would be seen as eccentric? Very much like "those who dance are considered insane by those who cannot hear the music"?
Obviously not all creative people are introverted, neither are they all suffering from mental issues, but the fact remains that there is a high representation of both. It was also there I started putting things together. I might be so far off in this, I do not know.. but I will find out, and I will let you know.
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