Can Insanity Precipitate Cretivity?

WHen I've not slept, or am on stimulants, sometimes my poetry/screenwriting/jamming on piano and guitar are enhanced. Does this happen to anyone else either? Is it in my head?
Look at geniuses like Picasso, and SId Barret. Some say to be an artist, one must be slightly insane/or in pain..
WHat do u think?

 

They say Attention Deficit Disorder increases creativity. That's not actual insanity but it's not stability either.

 

I agree. And to an extent, when someone has the hyperactive features, as I do, it could very much be construed as insane. Thanx a billion!!

PEACE

 

Well, first off, how are you measuring your creativity? If it is just based on your perception at the time, you may only 'think' you are more so... a problem common amongst stoners... (Fuck man, you should hear the amazing song I wrote last night on acid, it is deep as hell"... "man, thats just twinkle twinkle little star...")

Now, having said that...

Being tired, or stoned, or drunk, or in other ways out of a state of normalcy will quite often strip us of our inhibitions, allowing our minds to explore in ways it normally wouldn't.

And yes, mental disorders are usually associated with the people we are typically raised to think of as creative geniuses.

It's having a mind that works differently then is typical, that allows people to come up with ideas that a 'normal', 'ordered; mind wouldn't.

 

Dude, thank you. You are very insighful. LOL, I dont think beign drunk would make anyone creative. Uppers and grass do, however, at least in my mind.

 

Alot of great literature was written while the author was completely wasted on booze.

 

I guess it could but probably not, based on the various people I've known and met. Insanity seems to get in the way of creativity. I don't think suffering, pain or mental illness, etc. necessarily make an artist any better. What makes a person a great artist is the greatness of what's in their mind and a mastery of how to express their ideas. There is no shortage of people in the world that are mentally ill, drug addicts, and suffering, that are not artists. I don't think that it has much to do with it except as means of gaining insight and experiences in the world, which would help broaden an artists perspective.

 

Yeah, you got a point. I assume you are talking about Hemingway, and Kerouac. Booze can boost writing. I wouldnt try to play piano or guitar drunk, though.

 

Yes, general instability does increase creativity. and yes, coffee is the shit.

 

cofee is the shit. I cant stay off of it.

 

I feel more creative in the states you have described.
I think in a normal state of mind, most people think they have to try way to hard in order to come up with something original or good. When you are sleep-deprived, or under the influence of something, it's much easier to just let it go and let it flow without worrying about how other people will think of it.

 

RIght on

 

Keep in mind that creative is not the same thing as talented. There are plenty of creative people who create nothing but crap.

 

Subjective.
What is art?

 

I am drunk as shit right now, and cannot play piaano. I could not even playa C-Major scale. However, if you look at the geniuses, Jimi Hendrix, Aerosmith, SRV, these people use coke to enhance thier musical ability. ALso, Tarantino was on E when he filmed Kill Bill. (At lesat accordign to trusty Wikipedia).

Peace

 

good god, i wonder how shitty aerosmoth would have been without the coke!

 

The answer to the OP- Only if the spark is there to begin with

 

Good point. though they did more drugs than John Lennon and Tupac combined man.

Night white powder, watcha tonight, lines of night powder when you turn out the lights-ACDC

 

Work that's meant to evoke emotion?

 

A lot of the people I know who fall under the category of "ADD" or just general weirdness are also the most creative people I know. I think insanity, ADD, whatever, is a societal/medical label for people who think differently from some mindless "normal" demographic. I also may be biased.