Carl Hitchens - tracking the self …
Carl Hitchens - tracking the self …
2011
According to an article in the May 2011 issue of Scientific American magazine, entitled, The Unleashed Mind: Why creative People Are Eccentric,“People who are highly creative often have odd thoughts and behaviors—and vice versa.
“Both creativity and eccentricity may be the result of genetic variations that increase cognitive disinhibition—the brain’s failure to filter out extraneous information.
“When unfiltered information reaches conscious awareness in the brains of people who are highly intelligent and can process this information without being overwhelmed, it may lead to exceptional insights and sensations.”
The article by Shelley Carson implies a connection between highly creative individuals and eccentricity, even depression, without really explaining or offering a reason.
My comment:
Creative, ingenious people can be moody and depression prone, because of seeing the world beyond the five senses and customary accepted reality. They—even without conscious understanding of how they know—see beyond popular culture, despite, perhaps, trying to fit in as a young (or older) person.
Their idiosyncratic behavior is an effort, albeit unconscious in many cases, to liberate themselves from the self-experienced suffocation of cultural mores that seem hypocritical and unnecessarily restrictive.
Such individuals must, to positively interact with society, channel their creative energy into pursuits that nurture their spirits and satisfy their range of heightened awareness. Otherwise, they can become frustrated ne'er-do-wells, criticizing, but offering little or nothing from their creative wellspring—except iconoclastic opprobrium.
Channeling their broader scope of perception into forms and language comprehensible to society feels impotently ineffective. And in the self-alienation of perceived irrelevance they withdraw or act out.
Their lost . . . and ours.
Carl
Why are creative people eccentric?
4/16/11