Schizotype Creativity of creative madness

What creative potential is there for mental disorders??

Mental disorders are generally associated with disadvantages for those affected. However, "many ground-breaking innovations in the history of people were created, which would be diagnosed according to the current state of knowledge with a mental disorder," said the current release of the University of the Arts Bremen (HfK Bremen).

The personality image of people with bizarre, eccentric or indifferent behavior and little social skills is called a schizotype. According to information from the HfK Bremen, some of them choose a creative profession and thus a schizoid disorder is said to belong to a number of composers, writers, painters or scientists. This applies for example to Vincent van Gogh, Camille Claudel, Marie Curie, Alan Turing or Virginia Woolff. From 18 to 21 January, the conference "Schizotopia" at the HfK Bremen will deal with the schizotype as a creative force.

To extract creative and productive ideas from the abnormal

All these characters fit into the cliché of the so-called "crazy genius". On the one hand declared by the society as incapable of functioning, on the other hand rest in these personalities an innovative, creative force, so the communication of the HfK. At the upcoming conference, social ideas about the human psyche will be questioned and a public debate of values ​​such as standardization and normality will take place. The question also arises of how one can extract creative and productive ideas from the abnormal, and what perspectives society offers when it opens up to schizoid behaviors.

Connection of different disciplines

At the congress, numerous experts from medicine, philosophy, art history and design will meet for workshops, performances and happenings to devote themselves to the creative power of the schizotype. "By combining different disciplines, we want to create a new foundation and new potential for the development of a collective process in graphic design," explains Samuel Nyholm, HfK Professor of Illustration and Project Manager. This happens "oscillating between structure and chaos, excessive normality and discipline, confusion and instinctual creation."

Schizotypy is a quality

"For us, schizotypy is not a negative label, as it is often portrayed by the general public, but a quality that each of us carries in varying degrees in itself," said Prof. Nyholm. At the heart of the conference is the construction of a Schizo machine, made up of six individual constructions of the participating universities, which are interconnected. The idea goes back to a phenomenon described by the psychoanalyst Viktor Tausk ("Influencing Machine", 1919). For example, many patients with diagnosed schizophrenia have repeatedly reported that a state-of-the-art mechanism acts as an external, malignant control over them, manipulating their thoughts and behavior.

"Schizo-machine" controls the thinking

This "schizo-machine" can also project images or plant thoughts - symptoms that are associated with schizophrenia, according to the victims. "Where Tausk found a metaphor for the mental illness in the machine, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari saw the machine as a potential and the supposed disease as a new way to exchange and interact in the early 1970s," explains HfK Bremen , The exchange and the interaction will also be at the forefront of the upcoming conference. (Fp)