Creativity and Bipolar Diathesis: Common Behavioural and Cognitive Components

Abstract

An association between creativity and bipolar disorders has been noted among eminent creative individuals, and in clinical probands and their first degree relatives (e.g. Andreasen, 1987; Jamison, 1989; Richards, 1994). Those studies propose that a genetic liability for bipolar disorder carries with it an increased propensity for creative thought and action. The present study applied strict quantitative criteria to establish bipolar diathesis in order to determine whether the association between bipolarity and creativity would generalise to creative individuals beyond the circle of eminence in a nonclinical population. The Adjective Checklist Creative Personality Scale (ACL-CPS) and the revised General Behavior Inventory (GBI) were completed by 72 undergraduates. ACL-CPS scores were significantly elevated for students displaying periods of hypomania with no depression (hyperthymic), but not for those with alternating periods of hypomania and depression (cyclothymic) or predominantly depressed (dysthymic) mood patterns, as compared with people with predominantly neutral (euthymic) mood patterns (P < .05). GBI scores accounted for 38% of the variance in ACL-CPS scores (P < .001). Further analysis identified six behavioural symptoms underlying this association (P < .001). These six 'symptoms' may represent nonpathological affective and motivational correlates of creative activity which are aetiologically distinct from similar outward manifestations of bipolarity.