Conference paper
‘CRAZINESS’ AND CREATIVITY: PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND POETRY
Ahmed Hankir
; Research Fellow, Bedfordshire Centre for Mental Health Research in Association with Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
Rashid Zaman
; ahmedzakaria@doctors.org.ukAssociate Lecturer, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Abstract
Not all poets have experienced psychopathology. Conversely, not all those who have experienced psychopathology become poets.
The notion, nonetheless, of there being an association between ‘craziness’ and creativity, contentious though it may be, remains a
seductive one. Poetry is both beneficial for the person who is composing or reciting it as well as the person who may be reading or
listening to it. Poetry Therapy, which falls under the remit of Art Therapy, is increasingly being recognised as an effective form of
adjunctive therapy for the treatment of mental health problems. The main aims of this paper are to explore (and to attempt to
elucidate) if there is indeed a relationship between the artistic temperament and mental illness and to comment on the rise and
recognition of Art Therapy.
Keywords
creativity; poetry; mental health problems; bipolar disorder; schizophrenia
Hrčak ID:
264477
URI
Publication date:
8.9.2015.
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