Creativity Related to Insanity

Creativity is akin to insanity, say scientists who have been studying how the mind works.

Brain scans reveal striking similarities in the thought pathways of highly creative people and those with schizophrenia.

Both groups lack important receptors used to filter and direct thought.

It could be this uninhibited processing that allows creative people to "think outside the box", say experts from Sweden's Karolinska Institute.

In some people, it leads to mental illness. The trick is to insane enough to have brilliant ideas but sane enough to use them. There have certainly been cases where people considered mentally sub-normal have suddenly come out with a brilliant insight. Savants (people capable of astonishing memory and mental calculation) like the rain man also cross the boundary. Creative people often have have or feat they have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).

In truth many of us have to manage our focus (ADD) sufficiently in such a way we can pursue a career and pay our bills and still find outlets for our creativity.

Barbara Sher discovered that once creative people recognize and accept the fact that they are Scanners they can learn to live with and even take advantage of their lack of focus and inability to lead projects to fruition.