Artistic Creativity & Substance Abuse: The Role of Schizotypy

Artistic Creativity & Substance Abuse: The Role of Schizotypy

Introduction


There is an undeniable association between artistic creativity and drug use: references to substance use are prevalent in nearly every genre of music, many well known and historical musicians, visual artists, comedians, actors, writers, and creative types have struggled with severe substance abuse problems, some unfortunately losing their lives early as a result. Famous examples include Vincent Van Gogh, Sigmund Freud, Kurt Cobain, Richard Pryor, Edgar Allen Poe, and Robert Downey Jr. This post examines the cause of this association.


Predictors of Creativity


Normal personality traits as well as pathological personality traits are predictive of creativity (includes creativity as a cognitive ability, creative hobbies & professions, creative achievements, problem solving, imagination, and creative abilities & tendencies in art, science, and in social relations): a combination of high openness, extraversion, and low conscientiousness predict the highest levels of creativity (Feist 2019). Aspects of positive schizotypy including hypomania, perceptual distortions, magical thinking, eccentricity, and impulsive nonconformity have also been reliably found to predict all aspects of creativity (Furnham et al. 2008)(Batey & Furnham 2008)(Mohr & Claridge 2015)(Crespi et al. 2016), and musicians (Mason & Daniels 2018), comedians & actors (Ando et al. 2014), poets & visual artists (Nettle 2006) have elevated levels of positive schizotypy comparable to patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Successful scientists with creative achievements are also much more likely to have a close relative with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder than the general population (Parnas 2019). 



Predictors of Substance Use


Most predictors of creativity are also strong predictors of substance use and addiction: a combination of low conscientiousness, high extraversion, and high openness strongly predict legal and illegal drug use (Turiano et al. 2013). Persons with high levels of perceptual distortions/magical thinking or impulsive nonconformity are much more likely to have a substance use disorder than those with low levels (Kwapil 1996), as well as those with high levels of hypomania (Kwapil et al. 2000). About half of persons with schizophrenia (Winklbaur et al. 2006), bipolar disorder (Chengappa et al. 2000), and schizotypal personality disorder (Pulay et al. 2009) meet criteria for substance use, a rate much higher than the general population. 



Shared Underpinnings


Substance abuse, creativity, schizotypy, bipolar disorder, openness/intellect, and extraversion all share biological and evolutionary underpinnings. Activity in the dopaminergic systems in the brain is positively associated with higher extraversion, openness & intellect, creativity, schizotypy, hypomania, sensation seeking, and impulsivity - the latter two being directly related to substance use and addiction (DeYoung 2013). Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are linked to maladaptively increased cognitive empathy, imagination, and social cognition (Crespi 2016)(Crespi et al. 2016), and a mixture of high schizotypy and low autistic traits are associated with extraversion, openness/intellect, sensation seeking, and increased sociosexuality (Del Giudice et al. 2014), extraversion & openness also being linked to increased cognitive empathy (Di Girolamo et al. 2019). All of these traits are associated with fast life history strategies, short term mating effort, and amount of sexual partners, indicating shared evolutionary etiology (Del Giudice 2018).


Conclusion


The same traits which lead to the production of art and entertainment we enjoy and characterize the creative personalities many admire, come with the unfortunate evolutionary side effects of detrimental drug abuse, impulsivity, and other mental health difficulties. This understanding gives nuance into these topics and contradicts the assumptions of traits being purely “good” or pathological. 


  1. Feist (2019) Creativity and the Big Two model of personality: plasticity and stability

  2. Furnham et al. (2008) Personality, hypomania, intelligence and creativity

  3. Batey & Furnham (2008) The relationship between measures of creativity and schizotypy

  4. Mason & Daniels (2018) Psychotic traits in musicians

  5. Ando et al. (2014) Psychotic traits in comedians

  6. Nettle (2006) Schizotypy and mental health amongst poets, visual artists, and mathematicians

  7. Parnas (2019) Schizophrenia and Bipolar Illness in the Relatives of University Scientists: An Epidemiological Report on the Creativity-Psychopathology Relationship

  8. Mohr & Claridge (2015) Schizotypy--do not worry, it is not all worrisome

  9. Crespi et al. (2016) Imagination in human social cognition, autism, and psychotic-affective conditions

  10. Turiano et al. (2013) Personality and Substance Use in Midlife: Conscientiousness as a Moderator and the Effects of Trait Change

  11. Kwapil (1996) A Longitudinal Study of Drug and Alcohol Use by Psychosis-Prone and Impulsive-Nonconforming Individuals

  12. Kwapil et al. (2000) A Longitudinal Study of High Scorers on the Hypomanic Personality Scale

  13. Winklbaur et al. (2006) Substance abuse in patients with schizophrenia

  14. Chengappa et al. (2000) Lifetime prevalence of substance or alcohol abuse and dependence among subjects with bipolar I and II disorders in a voluntary registry

  15. Pulay et al. (2009) Prevalence, Correlates, Disability, and Comorbidity of DSM-IV Schizotypal Personality Disorder: Results From the Wave 2 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions

  16. DeYoung (2013) The neuromodulator of exploration: A unifying theory of the role of dopamine in personality

  17. Crespi (2016) The Evolutionary Etiologies of Autism Spectrum and Psychotic Affective Spectrum Disorders

  18. Del Giudice et al. (2014) Autistic-like and schizotypal traits in a life history perspective: diametrical associations with impulsivity, sensation seeking, and sociosexual behavior

  19. Di Girolamo et al. (2019) The Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy: A Comparison between Paper-and-Pencil versus Online Formats in Italian Samples

  20. Del Giudice (2018) Evolutionary psychopathology: A unified approach

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