CORK Bibliography: Creativity

20 citations. January 1997 to present

Prepared: March 2008

Bourassa M; Vaugeois P. Effects of marijuana use on divergent thinking. Creativity Research Journal 13(3/4): 411-416, 2001. (16 refs.)

This research sought to evaluate the effect of marijuana use on creativity as defined by the term divergent thinking. Another objective was to verify if there was a difference in the creativity of regular users (60 participants) and that of novice users of marijuana (60 participants) under 3 experimental conditions: without marijuana, with placebo, and with marijuana. The 4 divergent thinking factors (fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration) were measured by the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Form A, Figural scale). The results showed that the use of marijuana had no positive effects on divergent thinking (creativity) in novice users and reduced it in regular users.

Chesky KS; Hipple J. Performance anxiety, alcohol-related problems, and social/emotional difficulties of college students: A comparative study between lower-division music and non-music majors. Medical Problems of Performing Artists 12(4): 126-132, 1997. (23 refs.)

Performance anxiety, alcohol problems, and social/emotional concerns of lower-division music and non-music major students were evaluated and compared. Three hundred fifty-nine subjects (n = 359) participated in the study. Measures included two versions of the Performance Anxiety Inventory (PAI), the Young Adult Alcohol Screening Test (YAAPST), and a social/emotional problem checklist. Overall, comparisons using analysis of covariance, chi-square, and discriminant analysis indicated significant differences between the music and non-music major groups. The subjects majoring in music were determined to have significantly fewer alcohol-related problems and social-emotional concerns compared with the non-music major students. Findings from this study further extend the knowledge base in regard to similarity of adjustment difficulties between and among groups of students as well as with problem patterns already known to exist in professional musicians. Further research is suggested

Dobkin de Rios M; Janiger O. LSD, Spirituality and the Creative Process. Rochester VT: Park Street Press, 2003. (Chapter refs.)

In 1954 a Los Angeles psychiatrist [Oscar Janiger, M.D. (1918-2001)] began experimenting with a then new drug known as LSD-25. Over an eight-year period Dr. Janiger gave LSD-25 to more than 950 men and women, ranging in age from 18 to 81 and coming from all walks of life. The data collected during those trials and from follow-up studies done 40 years later is presented here, along with the broader discussion of the impact of LSD on creativity, imagination, and spirituality. The primary author, a medical anthropologist who has studied the use of hallucinogens in tribal and third world societies, discusses the spiritual aspects of Janiger's findings in light of what is known about psychoactive substance use among indigenous peoples in their religious ceremonies. Discussion also focuses upon the creative process as influenced by psychedelics, including artwork and poetry drawing upon materials from Janiger's original experimental sessions.

Gambelunghe C; Melai P. Absinthe: Enjoying a new popularity among young people? Forensic Science International 130(2-3): 183-186, 2002. (16 refs.)

Absinthe, an alcoholic drink used in certain artistic circles and considered the inspiring muse of many famous artists because it was reputed to stimulate creativity and possess exciting, aphrodisiacal and healing properties, in the past enjoyed enormous popularity so much so that it led to a real collective abuse so causing its prohibition in many countries, is again enjoying a new period of popularity. Also in Italy there is increasing information about the use and abuse of this drink. We received a request to analyse and determine the nature of two samples of alcoholic drinks, obtained by macerating Artemisia absinthium leaves in ethanol. Analyses of extracts by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) identified beta-thujone, which is responsible for the activity and toxic effects on the CNS of absinthe, in both alcohol samples.

Getsinger SH. Spiritual dimensions in rehabilitation from addiction. Journal of Ministry in Addiction & Recovery 5(1): 13-27, 1998. (36 refs.)

Spirituality is an important component of human life and can play a role in recovery from addictions. Six dimensions of spirituality (community, creativity, ethics, mysticism, theology, revelation) are discussed with the framework of psychology of religion and world religions and examples are given from the phenomenological framework of the recovery from addictions.

Hilton F. Baudelaire in Chains: A Portrait of the Artist as a Drug Addict. Chester Springs PA: Peter Owen/Dufour Editions disributor, 2004

This book differs from most biographies of Baudelaire, the Frenchpoent who was a pitotal link between Romanticism and Moderism, because it focuses on how the poet's opium addiction affected his relationships and his work. An accomplished dramatist, the author argues that none of Baudelaire's biographers, including Jean-Paul Sartre, has fully understood the effect of drugs on the poet's personality, life, and work. Hilton further suggests that most biographers lake Baudelaire's words at face value and give a jaundiced view of his situation, blaming his mother, family, and close associates for his poverty and misfortunes and letting him completely off the hook. Hilton throws a different light on Baudelaire's life when he argues that his opium consumption made him practice a variety of deceptions -- with his friends, family, and colleagues and, most important, with himself. This chronic self-deception prevented him from undertaking any prolonged creative work. Far from ennobling the poet, Hilton's book analyzes the root of his problems, outlines the damage, and reveals the puzzling areas of his life.

Jeste ND; Palmer BW; Jeste DV. Tennessee Williams. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 12(4): 370-375, 2004. (17 refs.)

Tennessee Williams was one of the greatest American playwrights of all time. Born into a family with a strong history of serious mental illness, Williams seemed to have bad several major depressive episodes during his early adulthood, along with severe and worsening alcohol and drug dependence and abuse involving sedatives and stimulants throughout his adult life. He received treatment of variable quality and duration in middle and old age. Despite his mental illness, Williams continued to be a productive writer even after age 60, although his later works were less successful The authors consider both the strengths and limitations of Williams' coping mechanisms.

Jones MT. The creativity of Crumb: Research on the effects of psychedelic drugs on the comic art of Robert Crumb. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 39(3): 283-289, 2007. (29 refs.)

This article investigates the influence of perception that is altered by psychedelic drugs on processes of creativity through a case study of the work of well-known comic artist Robert Crumb. Samples of Crumb's work before, during, and after the period of his use of psychedelic drugs are content analyzed and compared according to the categorization offered by Janiger and Dobkin de Rios (1989). The results of the comparison indicate that Robert Crumb's drug use significantly altered the stylistic approach of his artwork not only during the period of his drug use, but long after he had stopped using drugs.

Nicholls J; Owen SJ, eds. A Babel of Bottles: Drink, Drinkers, and Drinking Places in Literature. Sheffield England: Sheffield Academic Press, Ltd., 2000. (Chapter refs.)

The 11 essays in this volume are derived from an international, interdisciplinary conference on "drink, drinkers and drinking places in literature" that was held at Sheffield University in 1997. From alehouses and taverns in seventeenth-century drama to women drinkers in contemporary literature, this collection assesses the long and fertile relationship between the book and the bottle. Alcohol appears throughout literature in all the guises in which it appears in life. Both alcohol and the places in which drinking takes place are discussed with reference to gender, nation, addiction, festivity, creativity and class. Specific works/periods discussed include: Drinking and drama in early modern England; politics of drink in Restoration drama; FitzGerald's "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam;" public houses and gender in "The Waste Land"; conversations in Hemingway's bars; social drinking in "Ulysses;" women who drink in modern and contemporary fiction; drink, drugs and despair in Robert Stone's "Children of Light;" du Maurier's "Not After Midnight" and "Don't Look Now;" and drinking to anonymity -- Berryman, Sexton, and Carver.

Norlander T. Inebriation and inspiration? A review of the research on alcohol and creativity. Journal of Creative Behavior 33(1): 22-44, 1999. (74 refs.)

There is a conception that a uniquely positive correlation prevails between the intake of alcohol and creativity, but only a few experimental studies address this. subject. Existing studies together with recent experiments are reviewed. This later series of experiments explored whether or not moderate alcohol intoxication (1.0 mi of 100% alcohol/kg body weight) facilitated different phases of the creative process, i.e. preparation, incubation, illumination, verification, and restitution. A hypothesis is derived: which postulates that modest alcohol consumption inhibits aspects of creativity based mainly on the secondary process (preparation, certain parts of illumination, and verification), and disinhibits those based mainly on the primary process (incubation, certain parts of illumination, and restitution).

Norlander T; Gustafson R. Effects of alcohol on picture drawing during the verification phase of the creative process. Creativity Research Journal 10(4): 355-362, 1997. (30 refs.)

This study tested effects of acute alcohol intoxication on elaboration and revision in the verification phase of Wallas's (1926/1970) four stage model of creativity. Forty-two male and female participants were randomly assigned to three groups of equal size-a control group, a placebo group, and an alcohol group. The alcohol dose was 1 ml 100% alcohol/kg body weight. Participants were instructed to read a poem and to draw a picture using the poem. These pictures were judged by 2 separate panels of judges. Panel A was comprised of 3 professional artists. Panel B was comprised of 3 college art instructors. No group differences were apparent in ratings given by Panel A, but Panel B gave the work of the alcohol group low handicraft ratings. Results were interpreted as an indication that a moderate dose of alcohol inhibits certain relevant abilities during the verification phase of the creative process.

Norlander T; Gustafson R. Effects of alcohol on a divergent figural fluency test during the illumination phase of the creative process. Creativity Research Journal 11(3): 265-274, 1998. (30 refs.)

This study examined whether or nor acute alcohol intoxication inhibits or facilitates fluency and its different components in the illumination phase of Wallas's (1926/1970) 4-stage model of creativity. Twenty-one authors with 21 marched nonauthors were randomly assigned to three groups of equal size: a control group, a placebo group, and an alcohol group (alcohol dose: I mi 100% alcohol/kg body weight). They received a divergent figural fluency test that was evaluated in terms of fluency, flexibility, obvious answers, and original answers. The experiment produced three main results: (a) the alcohol group scored lower on flexibility compared to the placebo group, (b) scored higher on originality compared to the control group, and (c) the authors and nonauthors reacted in the same fashion to a moderate dose of alcohol. These results were interpreted as an indication that a moderate dose of alcohol may exert a dual control during the illumination phase of the creative process, by inhibiting or facilitating different components.

Novak SJ. LSD before Leary: Sidney Cohen's critique of 1950s psychedelic drug research. (review). ISIS 88(1): 87-110, 1997. (82 refs.)

In 1962 Sidney Cohen presented the medical community with its first warning about the dangers of the drug LSD. LSD had arrived in the United States in 1949 and was originally perceived as a psychotomimetic capable of producing a model psychosis. But in the mid 1950s intellectuals in Southern California redefined LSD as a psychedelic capable of producing mystical enlightenment. Though LSD was an investigational drug, authorized only for experimental use, by the late 1950s psychiatrists and psychologists were administering it to cure neuroses and alcoholism and to enhance creativity. Cohen's 1960 study of LSD effects concluded that the drug was safe if given in a supervised medical setting, but by 1962 his concern about popularization, nonmedical use, black market LSD, and patients harmed by the drug led him to warn that the spread of LSD was dangerous. The subsequent government crackdown and regulation of LSD preceded the 1960s drug movement and was prompted by medical, not social, concerns.

Plucker JA; Dana RQ. Alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use: Relationships to undergraduate students' creative achievement. Journal of College Student Development 39(5): 472-483, 1998. (69 refs.)

The researchers examined the relationship between 176 undergraduates' responses to the Creative Behavior Inventory (Hocevar, 1979) and the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey (Presley, Meilman, & Lyerla, 1994). A majority of participants were female (56.7%), and students identified themselves as 92.9% Caucasian, 2.4% Native American, 1.8% African American, and 3.0% other ethnic group or groups. The age at which students first used specific drugs was negatively or negligibly related to creative achievement, and past use of drugs was generally not significantly correlated with creative achievement. However limited evidence of a social expectancy effect was found (i.e., past creative achievement was correlated positively with current marijuana and female tobacco use and negatively with male alcohol use).

Plucker JA; Dana RQ. Creativity of undergraduates with and without family history of alcohol and other drug problems. Addictive Behaviors 23(5): 711-714, 1998. (9 refs.)

Noble, Runco, and Ozkaragoz (1993) provided evidence that alcoholics' children differ negatively from recovering alcoholics' and nonalcoholics' children in terms of personality characteristics related to creativity. They also found that divergent thinking test scores among the three groups of children are similar, yet the possibility exists that offspring compensate for the personality deficits and maintain productively creative lives in spite of the negative influence of parental substance use. This study investigated the impact of parental substance abuse problems on 163 undergraduates' creative achievement. With current alcohol consumption as a covariate, analysis of covariance results suggest that parental alcohol and drug problems do not have an appreciable effect on students' creative achievement, although marginally significant interaction of gender and family history provides limited evidence that gender may influence the impact of parental substance abuse on creativity. Because the true effects of parental substance abuse may not be felt for several years, future research should investigate these issues with older offspring.

Rauch L. The poet syndrome: Opiates, psychosis and creativity. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 32(3): 343-349, 2000. (10 refs.)

For some people, heroin is a self-medicating tool used to control innate psychic sensitivity. The habitual use of heroin provides the sensitive addict with a definition of consciousness by containment, psychic buffering, and psychic marking. This article is an examination of the political and social history of opiates, opiates as antipsychotics, "drug of choice" as a determinant of self-medication, and the connection between creativity, spirituality, psychosis and addiction. Using clinical observation, the article explores the poet syndrome hypothesis and offers direction for an alternative drug treatment paradigm.

Roth M. Carnival, creativity, and the sublimation of drunkenness. Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 30(2): 1-18, 1997. (64 refs.)

The connection between intoxication and creativity makes a regular if infrequent appearance in the history of the arts. Witness Horace's dictum, "no poems can please long, nor live, which are written by water-drinkers." Yet the connection is frequently suppressed. IN this essay the author explores how a far-reaching esthetic project of the late 19th-20th centuries -- the Dionyisan esthetic of Nietzsche and the carnival esthetics of Bakhtin and others -- is unable to suppress its connection to intoxication as a remarkable fact of social life. The author endeavors to demonstrate a widespread affirmation of the necessity and intensity of the link between carnival and intoxication, but one that needs to be inferred. It examines the way in which intoxication is both present and elided in various account of carnival.

ten Berge J. Breakdown or breakthrough? A history of European research into drugs and creativity. Journal of Creative Behavior 33(4): 257-276, 1999. (29 refs.)

Language barriers have largely prevented American scholars from learning about European studies concerning drugs and creativity. An art historian reports on several Swiss, English, French and German studies conducted from the 1940s to the 1970s, offering new data in a research area that has been banned since drugs like mescalin, psilocybin, and LSD became illegal. Different views of the operations of these drugs, revealed by such terms as "hallucinogens," "psychotogenics," and "psychedelics," appear to have colored researchers' aims to a large extent. The notions of drugs "dictating" or "liberating" the intoxicated artist are criticized by discussing the importance of set and setting. It is proposed that intentional drug use among artists expecting artistic breakthroughs while intoxicated, can be seen as a form of "gaucherie" or disinhibiting technique.

Tolson GHJ; Cuyjet MJ. Jazz and substance abuse: Road to creative genius or pathway to premature death. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 30(6): 530-538, 2007. (30 refs.)

Jazz music and jazz musicians have often been linked for better or worse to the world of addictive substances. Many talented jazz musicians either had their careers sidetracked or prematurely ended due to their addiction to drugs and/or alcohol. The rigors of nightly performances, travel, and for many musicians a disapproving society exacted a toll that impacted the creativity of many artists of the genre. The fact that drug and alcohol use had a significant impact on the performance levels of numerous jazz musicians in the 1940's and 1950's has been much discussed, but more study of that impact is warranted. While recent research has provided new information regarding this challenging topic, there is still much to learn. Indeed, a number of questions for inquiry may be posed. Among those questions are the following: Was the work of these jazz artists truly inspired? Would their creative output have been enhanced had they not been addicted to substances? What was the impact of the addictive substances on their ability to function as creative artists and is there evidence to refute or verify that impact? Are there identifiable traits in certain artists that allowed them to be creative in spite of their addictions? This examination presents an evaluation of the evidence of the link between creativity and substance abuse especially as it relates to selected jazz artists during this time period and how they remained creative and actually prospered in their careers in spite of addictions to controlled substances.

Waddell C. Creativity and mental illness: Is there a link? (review). Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 43(2): 166-172, 1998. (87 refs.)

This review critically assessed the scientific evidence for associating creativity with DSM mental illnesses, including mood disorders, psychoses, and alcohol use disorders. MEDLINE and secondary literature searches identified 29 studies and 34 review articles on creativity and mental illness. All studies were critically evaluated, and reviews were also assessed. Of 29 studies that evaluated possible associations between creativity and mental illness, 15 found no evidence to link creativity and mental illness, 9 found positive evidence, and 5 had unclear findings. Most studies used flawed methodologies with weak (case series or case control) designs. There were no randomized or prospective cohort studies. Adequate criteria for determining causal association were not met. In 34 selective reviews, despite mixed evidence, many authors asserted that creativity and mental illness were positively or causally associated. There is limited scientific evidence to associated creativity with mental illness. Despite this, many authors promoted a connection. Explanations for this contradiction are explored, and social and research implications are discussed.