Creativity and Madness: New Findings and Old Stereotypes

Intrigued by history's list of troubled geniuses, Albert Rothenberg investigates how two such opposite conditions--outstanding creativity and psychosis--could coexist in the same individual. Rothenberg concludes that high-level creativity transcends the usual modes of logical thought--and may even superficially resemble psychosis. But he also discovers that all types of creative thinking generally occur in a rational and conscious frame of mind, not in a mystically altered or transformed state.

Far from being the source--or the price--of creativity, Rothenberg discovers, psychosis and other forms of mental illness are actually hindrances to creative work. Disturbed writers and absent-minded professors make great characters in fiction, but Rothenberg has uncovered an even better story--the virtually infinite creative potential of healthy human beings.

Author: Albert Rothenberg
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 09/01/1994
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.68lbs
Size: 9.04h x 5.83w x 0.52d
ISBN: 9780801849770

About the Author

Albert Rothenberg, M.D., is clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard University and director of research at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. His books include The Emerging Goddess: The Creative Process in Art, Science, and Other Fields.

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