The Creative Advantages of Schizophrenia
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The Creative Advantages of Schizophrenia The Creative Advantages of Schizophrenia: The Muse and the Mad Hatter By Paul Kiritsis The Creative Advantages of Schizophrenia: The Muse and the Mad Hatter By Paul Kiritsis This book first published 2019 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2019 by Paul Kiritsis All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-3165-1 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-3165-9 For Christos Stamboulakis TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations ...................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... xi Foreword........................................................................................................................ xiii Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One ..................................................................................................................... 7 Schizophrenia as a Social Construct Chapter Two .................................................................................................................. 2 1 The Treatment of Schizophrenia Chapter Three ............................................................................................................... 33 Creativity: Definition, Research, Measurement Chapter Four .................................................................................................................. 43 The Muse Meets the Mad Hatter: Creativity and its Relation to Schizophrenia Chapter Five ................................................................................................................... 63 The Shared Vulnerability Model of Creativity and Psychopathology Chapter Six ..................................................................................................................... 73 The Golden Thread: The Marriage of Positive Schizotypy and Creativity Chapter Seven .............................................................................................................. 91 Clinical and Social Implications viii Table of Contents Afterword ........................................................................................................................ 99 Epilogue ........................................................................................................................ 103 References ................................................................................................................... 107 Index ............................................................................................................................. 127 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. A-1. Author Paul Kiritsis and his mentor Dr. Brooke Schauder ..... xi Fig. A-2. The Dissertation Committee, from left to right: Fred Luskin, PsyD chair, as a water nymph; chairperson Marilyn Schlitz, PhD, as a water nymph; committee member James Kaufman, PhD, as Poseidon; committee member Brooke Schauder, PhD, as Aphrodite; and doctoral candidate Paul Kiritsis, as Eros ................... xii Fig. 1-1. Visual representation of reality as experienced by an individual with schizophrenia .......................................................................... 7 Fig 1-2. The multiple nuclei of sub-selves, each with their own voice, within the fragmented mind of the individual with schizophrenia ......................................................................................................... 15 Fig. 1-3. The martyrdom of turning inward. By Christos Stamboulakis .......................................................................................................... 19 Fig. 2-1. Drowning voices with polypharmacy. By Christos Stamboulakis .......................................................................................................... 23 Fig. 2-2. Yearning for reintegration ..................................................................... 32 Fig. 3-1. Imaginative recreation of Kekulé’s evocative dream with its revelatory content ......................................................................................... 33 Fig. 3-2. Creativity as an epiphenomenon of the ultimate alchemical machine, the human mind ................................................................................ 42 Fig. 4-1. Muse and Mad Hatter: The Battle of Excesses .............................. 43 Fig. 4-2. Leonardo Da Vinci’s helicopter with a helical rotor made of reeds, wire, and linen .................................................................................... 47 Fig. 4-3. An Emanation of the Feminine Aspect of the Divine. By Christos Stamboulakis ................................................................................. 49 Fig. 4-4. The Fountainhead of Creative Thought. By Christos Stamboulakis .......................................................................................................... 61 Fig. 5-1. The shared vulnerability model of creativity and psychopathology [schizophrenia]. Adapted from “Creativity and Psychopathology: A Shared Vulnerability Model,” by S. H. Carson, 2011. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56, p. 148. Copyright March 2011 by S. H. Carson. Reprinted with permission ................................. 65 Fig. 5-2. Splitting. By Christos Stamboulakis ................................................... 72 Fig. 6-1. The Many and the One. By Christos Stamboulakis ....................... 73 x List of Illustrations Fig. 6-2. The first component of the CAT task ................................................. 77 Fig. 6-3. Rebirth. By Christos Stamboulakis ..................................................... 89 Fig. 7-1. A consequence of being perceived as different ............................ 91 Fig. 7-2. Metamorphosis. By Christos Stamboulakis ..................................... 9 8 Fig. B-1. The World in Symbols .......................................................................... 102 Fig. B-2. Mystery of the Mind .............................................................................. 103 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Fig. A-1. Author Paul Kiritsis and his mentor Dr. Brooke Schauder. First and foremost, I wish to thank my family for their unwavering and unrelenting support over the years. None of this would have been possible without you. Special mention to my doctoral mentor and methods expert, Dr. Brooke Schauder, for her bona fide input and constructive criticism, support, and communication during the rigorous dissertation process. Moreover, an expression of gratitude to my other two dissertation committee members, my chairperson Dr. Marilyn Schlitz of Sofia University, and my content expert Dr. James Kaufman of Connecticut University, for their guidance and encouragement. xii Acknowledgements I couldn’t have asked for a better team–a clinical neuropsychologist, a social anthropologist, and a cognitive psychologist. Eternal gratitude and special thanks to Dr. Mary Gregerson, my editor, for rendering this manuscript fit for publication. A special mention to Francesca Lalli, my colleague, for her support and friendship during this laborious albeit rewarding period of my life. And of course, my work colleagues at CIP– Cindy Jepson, Lena Grintsaig –for keeping me sane along the way. To my friend Ethan Carr, thank you for your emotional countenance and guidance. Finally, I wish to thank my talented cousin Chris Stamboulakis for impelling me to grow psychologically and spiritually, have the courage to confront my shadows, fears, and vices, and be the best version of myself that I can be. Fig. A-2. The Dissertation Committee. From left to right: Fred Luskin, PsyD chair, as a water nymph; chairperson Marilyn Schlitz, PhD, as a water nymph; committee member James Kaufman, PhD, as Poseidon; committee member Brooke Schauder, PhD, as Aphrodite; and Paul Kiritsis, as Eros. FOREWORD The theme of this book is the interface of psychopathology and creativity, a narrative that goes back to at least the time of Aristotle on a sociohistorical, collective level and to my exuberant childhood years on an individual, personal level. In Problemata XXX, the great Hellenistic philosopher broached the topic for discussion when he questioned why melancholic individuals would so often concern themselves with the expressive arts. As a youngster, I, too, asked myself a rudimentary, unsophisticated version of that question after observing, time and time again, my beloved cousin as he endured ungrounding throes of psychotic decompensation interspersed with arduous bouts of creative, task-focused productivity. It was so hard to make sense out of what was happening to him; the periods of confusion, dysregulation, imaginative hyperassociation, and ebullient emotion, juxtaposed by equipoise, clarity, and lucid nonverbal narratives. It was all too confusing and overwhelming for my inchoate, prepubescent mind to understand. Everything felt like it was black or white around him; experience was never in shades of grey. He probably felt the same. My