Creativity and Mental Illness

"What a joy to see top scholars seriously engage with this controversial topic. This book dispenses with simplistic myths, and stays grounded in scientific research. The result is a much more complex understanding of the links - and non-links - between creativity and mental illness. This book is required reading."
Keith Sawyer, Morgan Distinguished Professor in Educational Innovations, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

"A timely and necessary volume; this handbook provides an excellent compilation of ideas and empirical studies relating to the old and much debated question of creativity and mental illness."
Simon Kyaga, Karolinska Institutet

"This is a fascinating book on a relatively little-explored topic - the connection between madness and genius - and it is well worth looking at the findings from research studies and reading different interpretations of the results."
Sonu Chandiram, Biz India

Are creative people more likely to be mentally ill? This book re-examines the common view that a high level of individual creativity often correlates with a heightened risk of mental illness. It includes contributions from some of the most exciting voices in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, physics, psychiatry, and management.

James C. Kaufman is Professor of Educational Psychology in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut.