Creativity and mentall illness, is there a link - Essay Example

Creativity is defined in many ways by many people. Some people believe that it is the intellectual giftedness. Some others believe that though intelligence is required for creativity, it is not sufficient enough. Independence, fluency and flexibility were cited as the characteristics of creativity. (Waddell) All the intelligent people need not be creative, but all creative people are intelligent. Intelligence is only a part of creativity and in order to become a creative person one should have other qualities like great imaginative power.

In fact personality may not have much importance in the life of a creative person. We have lots of examples in which genius persons who adopted crazy life styles. Creativity is the capacity to originate scientific discoveries, artistic works, technical inventions, or engage in political leadership, in a manner that achieves what is conventionally termed eminence (Dutton) Hard work is required for every creative work and hence the mental health has an important role in the making of a creative person.

Mental health on the other hand is measured in terms of the social behavior of the person. Any unaccepted social behavior may be considered as the indications of some kind of mental problems. In a study conducted in out of the 291 assessed biographies of eminent males in music, art, writing, science, and political leadership, high rates of psychiatric disorders like depression and alcoholism in writers and artists were found. (Waddell) Kamala Das (Madhavikutty), one of the greatest creative writers from Kerala, India has been passed away recently and her life history is one of the best examples for our topic of “relation between mental health and creativity”.

This writer was one of the all time great romantic writers not only in Malayalam but in English as well. Many of her literature works were translated to English and Arabic like many other languages. At