Jerrod Balzer

If this post seems familiar, it’s because I wrote it a while back on my old blog. I’ll be slowly bringing posts over there, though, and when I’m done, I’ll nuke the old one from orbit (it’s the only way to be sure.)

Regarding THIS article.

I won’t argue whether or not both creative people and schizophrenic have less receptors that inhibit limited perspectives, but I couldn’t disagree more with the way the article is trying to twist it into creative people being so similar as to “mimic” the disorder.

Sure, it’s natural for society to label anyone who’s different as crazy, but there is such a huge difference between a very imaginative person and a schizophrenic. For one, there’s control. A creative person can stop thinking up cool ideas long enough to go shopping, mow the lawn, etc. No matter how “crazy” a creative person’s friends might call him or her, they can still function quite well. A person with a mental disability cannot. Some can with the help of medications, but without it, they still lack the control. That’s all medication does, after all. Since it can’t cure the illness, it works to control it so the sufferer can -hopefully- be more comfortable than without it.

Here’s a quote:

Some of the world’s leading artists, writers and theorists have also had mental illnesses – the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and American mathematician John Nash (portrayed by Russell Crowe in the film A Beautiful Mind) to name just two.

Yeah, and I bet for every artist they come up with who had a mental illness, there are a thousand schizophrenics who could barely finger paint or tie their shoes. That’s like naming a few plumbers who are Baptists, so there MUST be a connection so close that one “mimics” the other.

An author or artist might imagine a horde of zombies outside and get inspired, but there is no real danger.

Schizophrenics might really believe a horde of zombies is outside and become so terrified, they could pose a serious threat to themselves or those around them.

And obviously, during a mentally ill person’s bad moments, they aren’t capable of doing anything. An artist who is having a really rough day of it can’t get their thoughts together enough to paint. Hell, Robin can’t even watch TV on a bad day without yelling about something trying to get her or bugs crawling on her. So how would she be able to do something productive? Likewise, the average creative mind wouldn’t get anything done if it was ‘mimicking’ the illness.

Then the article’s direction is completely contradicted by the end:

He works as an executive coach helping people to be more creative in their problem solving behaviour and thinking styles.

“The result is typically a significant rise in their well being, so as opposed to creativity being associated with mental illness it becomes associated with good mental health.”

So there might NOT be a mimic going on here? Which is it resembling, good or bad mental health?

While I don’t get offended when people joke about being crazy, when they come out and try saying they could be schizophrenic for the simple reason of having a healthy imagination, I say try living with the hell that a TRUE schizophrenic goes through. I’m sure they’d learn fast how ridiculous the notion is.

I opened it up for discussion over at the Merchant’s Keep forum. Feel free to join in HERE.