Is it possible to be too creative to the point of insanity?

David Wong Only in the sense that society determines what is "creative" and who is "insane" and does it based on the same criteria: "Is this person doing or thinking things that a normal person wouldn't?" If the person is just a little different, then they are celebrated, an object of fascination. If the person is TOO different then they're broken and need cured.

Not that mental illness isn't a real thing - it is, and causes suffering that should be alleviated. But people with true illnesses go untreated all the time purely because the nature of their illness makes them fun and interesting to others and otherwise healthy people have been rejected from society in the past, and often institutionalized, because they were eccentric in a particular way that made people uncomfortable.

Creativity of all kinds requires a personality type that is either willing to reject cultural norms or just be unaware of them altogether. How people treat you depends on whether or not you land in that sweet spot of challenging what they think they know about the world, but in a way that doesn't really threaten them.

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