The Creative Advantages of Schizophrenia:
The Muse and the Mad Hatter
Paul Kiritsis, PsyD, MScMed
The aphorism that madness and creative genius are opposing sides of the same coin predates contemporary psychiatry and has existed since the time of the great Stagirite Aristotle. Schizophrenia is one mental disorder intimately linked with creative thinking and achievement. There is no shortage of eminent scientists, thinkers, writers, artists, composers, and political activists tentatively theorized to have precariously balanced the great divide between the demons of schizophrenia and the muses of creative illumination - Rene Descartes, Emanuel Swedenborg, John Forbes Nash, Leonardo da Vinci, Joan of Arc, to name but a few. But is that association veracious in an empirical sense? And if it is, how exactly are they related?
Using new empirical findings, this book sheds new light upon the age-old assumption and goes further still in explaining how creative potential with world-fashioning powers can be channeled in individuals with this diagnosis. Mental health practitioners will find this book both intriguing and useful.
Praise for The Creative Advantages of Schizophrenia
The enigmatic relationship between creativity and the psychopathology of schizophrenia is expertly confronted in this book. Kiritsis’ comprehensive, beautifully written exploration of this perplexing and fascinating topic addresses head-on how creative potential is channeled, and why this is important. As a mental health clinician, art therapist, and scholar, I am most impressed by Kiritsis’s well-informed recommendations for clinical practice related to impact on overall quality of life for persons with schizophrenia and their activities of daily living. The in-depth examination of the link between long-term functional gains in executive functioning and the quality of creative output has implications that extend well beyond the mental health community. This illuminating book is a must-read for all.
- Donna Betts, PhD, ATR-BC
Anyone deeply interested in the veracity of links between creative genius and psychological disorders will deem this well-written study stimulating and encouraging and find the symbolically related illustrations by the author (and other artists) fascinating.
- Kate Robinson, US Review of Books
The Creative Advantages of Schizophrenia is also surprisingly readable, allowing for the fact that it is an academic text. The book will appeal to clinicians and medical students. It may also be something that relatives and friends of schizophrenics might turn to in search of a greater understanding of the condition.
- Brendan Donaghy, The OnlineBookClub.org
From the diagnosis of Schizophrenia and the treatment of the disease to the definition of creativity itself and how it can be related to those with mental illness, this book is a scientific study of creativity and mental illness like nothing else before it.
- Anthony Avina, Pacific Book Review
The book is brimming with haunting images by debut illustrator Christos Stamboulakis, the author’s cousin, and others, much of which depicts the struggle with psychosis. Kiritsis’ study is painstakingly argued - he furnishes a model of experimental meticulousness. In addition, the analysis is not just scientifically exacting, but reasonable as well—he draws on both his work as a "burgeoning clinician" and his experiences as an “untutored eyewitness.
- Kirkus Reviews
The Creative Advantages of Schizophrenia is available to buy from your local bookseller and online internationally from Amazon.
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About The Author
Dr. Paul Kiritsis, PsyD, MScMed, is a licensed medical psychologist practicing in Redwood City, California. He specializes in the diagnosis and multimodal treatment of neuropsychiatric and functional neurological disorders, as well as coordinating care for patients suffering from these ailments. He offers heterogeneous and eclectic services consistent with his interdisciplinary training in clinical psychology and medicine (clinical neurology and neurophysiology), including, (1) comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations for diagnostic clarification, formulation of rehabilitation plans, and treatment guidance, (2) integrated psychophysical and neuropsychological assessments for the early detection of underlying neurodegenerative disease processes, (3) adult and young adult psychotherapies, (4) ecologically oriented neurorehabilitation of executive function and memory for individuals with psychiatric and/or neurological disease or injury, and (5) clinical hypnosis for adjuvant treatment of pain disorders [e.g. post-stroke, migraine, cluster headache, and cancer patients], manifest phobias and panic symptoms, smoking cessation, and enhancement of creativity."
Dr. Kiritsis has authored six other books, including Tales of a Spiritual Sun (2023), A Critical Investigation into Precognitive Dreams (2021) and the creative compendium Confessions of a Split Mind (2017). His diverse academic interests straddle cognitive neuroscience, clinical neuropsychology, and philosophy of mind at one end of the spectrum and esotericism, comparative religion, history, and mythology at the other.
You can learn more about the ground-breaking work of Dr. Paul Kiritsis by visiting his website paulkiritsis.net and you can connect with him online via Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.
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