Did you ever wonder why so many famous writers are a bit crazy? Theodore Roethke went through a psychosis. Nietzsche also battled a psychosis several times. Emily Dickenson is suspected to have had temporal lobe epilepsy.. Sylvia Plath spent some time in a mental institution before she committed suicide. Jack Kerouac was diagnosed with schizophrenia but he didn’t acknowledge it. “As far as I’m concerned”, he told a reporter, “I get nervous in an emotional way”. Those are just some of the well-known creative geniuses who displayed signs of mental illness. Many people who work with writers on a daily basis agree that writers tend to be a bit eccentric. A creative imagination may be tied to madness.
The word “crisis” in Greek means “moment of judgment”. One of the questions that I was asked by a psychiatrist when I was going through a psychosis is, “Do you feel like you are being judged by God?” Yes! “That’s exactly it”, I told him. I felt like I was on trial. All the psychiatrists and psychologists asked the same questions. “Do you talk to spirits or see them?” Check. “Do you ever have thoughts of suicide?” Check. If they could have known how much emotional pain a person could endure and still live, they would give me a medal instead of a label which says I have a disorder which ultimately says, “I’m broken”. Back then I met with seven different psychiatrists and psychologists but none of them could agree what was wrong with me. One said I have hypergraphia (obsessive writing) so he suspected I had temporal lobe epilepsy because they usually go hand in hand. Commonly called TLE, it is similar to schizophrenia but the symptoms are more focused on spiritual obsessions and supernatural beliefs. Van Gogh is suspected to have had this disorder. I learned that after a neurosurgeon told me that he went through a psychosis too. It offered me some hope at the time. That particular doctor suspected that I was on the autism spectrum. None of the other psychologists agreed with that. I was almost diagnosed with schizophrenia but my psychiatrist stopped the diagnosis after I debated with him about a concept called “spiritual emergence”. Shamans, indigenous healers, believe that the ego can be destroyed many times throughout a person’s life. Luckily, I made it out alive. Like Jack Kerouac I believe that I am emotionally intense, but not “crazy” in the clinical sense. This realization came after several years of therapy. Crazy people are discarded and they are medicated for the rest of their lives. They don’t have a voice. They are the outsiders. Perhaps that is why many of them turn to writing. When no one else can hear or understand you, and when you feel so disconnected from society, writing is a tool that offers some hope of redemption.
One common trait that all creative writers have (crazy or sane) is an active imagination. Kazmierez Dobrowski, a psychiatrist who studied gifted people, claimed that intellectual over-excitabilities (often labeled as ADHD) is presented in those who have such a creative imagination. He also noticed a common pattern of psychotic symptoms with these people. In his theory of “positive disintegration”, he explains how the ego is transcended. Shamans refer to it as an “ego-death” but he uses the term “transcended” instead. I prefer that term because it reminds me of the Romantic Transcendentalists. He describes the psychological process very logically. However, his research is not acknowledged in the diagnostic handbook for psychologists. His studies included many gifted children as well as gifted adults. Today, if those same children were brought into a typical psychiatrist’s office, they would most likely be diagnosed with having, “Oppositional Defiant Disorder” or ODD for short.
While most psychiatrists are not aware of Dobrowski’s work; I will summarize it briefly to show the correlation between “crazy writers” and “emotionally excitable gifted people”. There are five stages to the psychological process of ego transcendence. A person in the first stage is described as being integrated with society and adhering to cultural expectations. People in this stage are considered to be normal.
In the second stage, a person encounters a crisis which makes him reevaluate his identity and beliefs. The symptoms at level II often produce anxiety and depression as one ponders the meaning of life and questions former beliefs. It is common for people to have suicidal thoughts at this stage, and a period of psychosis is not uncommon. Sylvia Plath went back and forth between the first two stages…until she finally gave up and committed suicide.
If the person makes it through level II and does not revert back to level one, the individual is impelled to follow his ideals. These new beliefs often differ from traditional beliefs. During level III the status quo is challenged, so the individual may become paranoid after experiencing social persecutions which make him feel like an outcast. The person in this phase often gets entangled in conspiracy-thinking. Reality is questioned.
Level IV is described as a “re-balancing of consciousness” which means that their thinking becomes less black and white and/or delusional. Those at level IV make conscious choices, based on their conscience. They take responsibility for their actions and the choices they have made. Level V is marked by creative expression and self-actualization. The person at this level becomes the Creator, or the Oversoul as Nietzsche described it.
Can a mental breakdown lead to heightened creativity? There is some research in the field of neuropsychiatry which suggests that this may be true. David Hawkins, a psychiatric pioneer in the field, discovered a new evolution in brain physiology. He refers to this as the “Etheric Brain”. He estimates that at least 15 percent of the world’s populations have access to it. “The etheric brain is purely energetic and it picks up high frequencies aligned with high levels of consciousness” (Hawkins & Jeffrey, 2008, p. 139). Anyone who is committed to integrity and truth can have access to it.
Emotionally intensive people may be more prone to self-reflection which causes this sort of evolution of consciousness. Highly sensitive people tend to be self-reflective. According to psychologist Dr. Elaine Aron, “highly sensitive people, or HSPs, could contribute much more to society if they received the right kind of attention. In cultures where it is not valued, HSPs tend to have low self-esteem. They feel abnormal because they are criticized for being too emotional. Aron estimates that HSPs comprise at least 15 percent of the population. She also agrees with Dobrowski that highly sensitive people are often unusually creative and intellectually gifted individuals. Seen in this perspective, it is no wonder why so many sensitive and emotionally intense people turn to writing as a creative outlet to express their inner world. Creativity is heightened after we transcend our ego.
References
Aron, Elaine. (2010). The Highly Sensitive Person. Retrieved from
http://www.hsperson.com/index.html
Borden, J. (2005). Chron National. Before he was on the road, Kerouac was in the Navy.
Retrieved from: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/3219198.html
Cramer, K. (1990). Staying on top when your world turns upside down: Turn your stress
into strength. Penguin Books. New York, NY. ISBN: 01401.27720
Daniels, S. Piechowski, M. (2008). Living with Intensity. Understanding the Sensibility,
Excitability, and Creativity, and Emotional Development of Gifted Children, Adolescents, and Adults. Great Potential Press. Scottsdale, AZ. Retrieved from: http://books.google.com/books?id=gDk0l_tcvTQC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Dobrowski, Kazmierez. Mendaglio, Sal. (2008). Dobrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration. Great
Potential Press, Scottsdale AZ. ISBN-0910707-84-7
Hawkins, David. Jeffrey, Scott. (2008) Creativity Revealed. Discovering the Source of Creative
Inspiration. Creative Crayon Publishers. Kingston New York. ISBN- 0-971481-5-5.Retrievedfrom: http://books.google.com/books?id=4x7TPRYX9QC&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&dq=etheric+brain+hawkins&source=bl&ots=YaQQVPFkA_&sig=CyOm3y4o1XvpPD8urlMBQgpOvl8&hl=en&ei=lBwETsOcB67WiAKSoITFDQ&sa=X&oi=book
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