Mental Illness and Creative Genius

Mental Illness and Creative Genius

Mental illness is defined as a health condition that involves changes in behavior, emotion, and/or thinking. The condition is connected to distress as well as problems operating in family, social, or even work events. Although many people believe that mental diseases are rare, they are common and widespread across the world (Pavitra, Chandrashekar, & Choudhury, 2007). For instance, research indicates many Americans suffer from a number of mental illness in a particular year. It is unfortunate that most families are never prepared to cope with recognizing that their loved ones have the problem. The situation can be both emotionally as well as physically trying and make many individuals feel vulnerable to judgments as well as opinions of others.

Creative genius is associated with various qualities that define it. Studies indicate that creative geniuses are open to new experiences. Specifically, a number of psychologies have determined the idea of openness to experience as the most vital trait of creative individuals. Scholars maintain that creative geniuses make a substantial conscious effort to introduce transformation into their lives. These individuals put themselves in conditions that they are likely to experience the unexpected (Pavitra, Chandrashekar, & Choudhury, 2007). Similarly, creative geniuses possess a considerable tolerance for uncertainty. They tend to careless pertaining to the destination as well as more concerning the journey.

The nature of mental illness revolves on a broad array of conditions that affect the way people feel and think. Most of the conditions associated with mental disorders are first experience in the late teens or even early twenties. Research indicates that mental illnesses arise mostly from the interaction of stress in life as well as genetic vulnerability (Kendler, 2016). A good example is Sylvia Plath’s novel “The Bell Jar,” which addresses metal breakdown of a college woman in the 1950s. Mental disorders consist of common recognized conditions such as depressive illness as well as anxiety and Schizophrenia not forgetting psychotic illness. Studies indicate that mental disorders vary in the amount of time they affect human beings ranging from a single episode to a lifelong condition.

A number of psychologists have been fascinated by the connection existing between mental illness and creativity. It is important to understand that creativity is the capability of making new combinations as well as it is recognized as the most valued of people qualities. Creativity proves to be the underlying factor to success or even failure in individuals’ quest for knowledge. Specifically, a creative thinker always tries to come up with something new and this includes a substantial amount of unconscious symbols rearrangements (Reddy et al., 2018). The nature of creativity revolves around the capability to make discoveries, inventions, as well as creations that contribute to novel relations as well as unanticipated solutions into existence. Creativity cognitive foundation is considered as a new as well as unusual relation that is neurophysiological represented by a synaptic connection existing between two or more objects that yield a novel not forgetting meaningful methods, products, ideas, or solutions.

Research indicates that geniuses are different from other individuals and two aspects make them difficult to study. These people are labelled subjective because many individuals maintain that anyone with an intelligence quotient that is considered higher than a certain value is a genius. Other people feel that IQ tests play a vital role in measuring a limited segment of a human being’s total intelligence. Other individuals believe high test scores indicates little degree of real genius (Weir, 2012). On the same note, studies show that genius is a considerable image concept while a number of medical and scientific inquiries examine details. The two aspects above indicate that IQ is not the only factor that depicts that someone is a genius. Therefore, an individual is said to be a genius when he or she can break innovative grounds with exceptional work of art, discoveries, and/or inventions.

Both psychological scientific underpinnings are known to contribute to mental illness. Technology advancement has led to the invention of new tools in genetics as well as neuroimaging that scientists use for deciphering details of biology of mental disorders. Nowadays, scientists and psychologists have made fascinating discoveries pertaining to the dysfunction as well as function of the human brain as far as mental illness is concerned (Reddy et al., 2018). For example, scholars have determined genes associated to schizophrenia as well as discovered that particular brain abnormalities heighten an individual’s danger of developing stress disorders that are linked to mental illness.

The narrator in “The Bell Jar” conveys in humorous as well as irreverent ways the foibles of her life. It is evident that her humor plays a vital role in making descent into madness more relatable. The symbolic use of jars, black and white colors, as well as bottles to symbolize death and imprisonment is a good example that shows humor that makes descent into madness relatable. It is clear that Slyvia Plath’s novel “The Bell Jar” plays a crucial part when it comes to mental illness and creativity study. Overall, individuals should understand the difference between mental illness and creative genius to avoid confusion.