The Romantic idea of the troubled artist is still a valid concept even in today’s ever-changing world. As scientists discover more and more about the brain and genetics, they are finding scientific proof for this Romantic ideal. Where once it was simply known that many writers were manic-depressive, it can now be proven that certain intellectual characteristics are genetically linked to manic-depression. By taking brain scans, scientist can see what part of the brain is affected by a certain neurobiological disorder and what effects it has on a person’s personality. Such is the case for Tourette Syndrome (TS) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). As scientists are finding the genetic causes of TS and OCD and the parts of the brain that is affected by these disorders, they are also finding the full range of symptoms that accompany TS and OCD. The physiological and psychological characteristics that are being discovered as generally associated with Tourette Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder are qualities that greatly help stimulate the creative process thus making TS/OCD inflicted persons more susceptible to creativity.
TS is a “neurobiological disorder characterized by tics – involuntary, rapid, sudden movements and/or vocal outburst that occur repeatedly”(Handler 207)1. Physiologically it is believed that “TS results from a hypersensitivity of postsynaptic dopamine receptors” (IRSC Web Page)2. This hypersensitivity is believed to be caused by “reduced levels of dopamine metabolites in cerebrospinal fluid” (IRSC Web Page)3.
Motor tics, tics involving the motor functions, can range from the constant jerk of an arm or the roll of the neck to excessive jumping up and down or kicking of walls. Lowell Handler, a writer with TS, described “feeling the need to jump in the air and kick the back of [his] thighs” as a teenager(Handler 2)4. Another type of tic he felt compelled to complete was “touching things repeatedly or invoking a particular phrase over and over”(Handler 2)5. Vocal tics are tics involving audible yelps, grunts, words and phrases.
TS is believed to be an inherited trait. The chances of a person having TS is “significantly elevated” if that person has relatives with TS(Jankovic 381)6. The environmental factors causing TS are at this time unclear. It is, however, known that environmental factors such as stress can cause the “waxing and waning [of tics] over time” in individuals already inflicted with TS(Chase 58)7.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a mental anxiety disorder. Like TS, the exact causes of OCD are unknown. Experts strongly “suspect that a biochemical imbalance is involved”(Mental Health Web Page)8. It is believed that “alterations in one or more brain chemical systems that regulate repetitive behaviors may be related to the cause of OCD”(Mental Health Web Page)9. The use of scanning equipment has been used to compare “the brains of people with and without OCD, and [differences have been found], both in the way the brains work and in sizes of different parts of the brains”(Baer 12)10. New studies show that a specific gene may be one possible cause of the disorder. This gene reduces the production of the enzyme COMT or catechol-O-methyltransferase(Bower 269)11.
Obsessions are “intrusive thoughts that force themselves into your mind”(Baer 9)12. They are “repetitive, difficult to control, annoying, and sometimes even frightening thoughts” (Handler 36)13. Compulsions on the other hand “refers to actions you feel compelled to carry out”(Baer 9)14. Compulsions “are performed in response to an obsession, or according to rules or in a stereotyped fashion”(Baer 9)15.
People with OCD just like people with TS are not “crazy.” Except for their overwhelming obsessions and compulsions, people with OCD remain in touch with reality in all other areas of their lives.(Baer 8)16.
TS and OCD are very closely related. In most cases patients with TS also experience obsessive-compulsive behavior and patients with OCD exhibit tics(Chase 83)17. One such hypothesis is that there exists a “a genetic linkage between TS and OCD”(Chase 33)18. The difference between tics and compulsions is that “motor tics, although they can be complex and may dispel an ‘urge’ or a build-up of tension, are not instigated by a thought and not typically accompanied by anxiety”(Chase 83)19. One important similarity is that both tics and compulsions give temporary relief to the TS/OCD patient. In regards to a TS and OCD personality it is best to think of them as on a spectrum – where one ends and the other begins is very muddled. TS and OCD has also been described as “two sides of the same neurological coin”(Saslow)20.
Creativity is much harder to describe than TS or OCD. Its origins in an individual are extremely hard to distinguish. It is, however, known that environment along with genetics plays a role in the formulation of creativity. Studies with “rats raised in a stimulating, ‘creative’ environment and deprived rats raised in a severely impoverished environment show that the disadvantaged animals suffered deteriorative changes in the chemistry and anatomy of their brains”(Groch 278)21. This study suggests that even though a person can be born with creative personality traits, his environment can also have both adverse and beneficial effects.
It is known however that certain personality traits make a person more susceptible to creative endeavors. Firstly TS/OCD is strongly connected to Creativity in a physiological manner. The distinguishing characteristic of TS is ticcing. Although the ticcing of TS is a motor function, it is not completely confined to the motor domain(Chase 213)22. It is believed that “the neuroanatomical substrate underlying symptoms in TS is assumed to include Limbic as well as motor mechanisms”(Chase 213)23. The Limbic System is a very integral part of the emotional center to the brain(Ackerman 21)24. It holds “many secrets related to the chemistry of consciousness and emotion”(Groch 277)25. The Limbic System performs many “important physiological functions by which the body expresses emotion”(Groch 277)26. Emotions are a very important part of the creative process. Those with a creative mind have an “openness to all their feelings and reactions [that distinguishes] them – according to psychologists who have studied them – from others less able to confront their emotions”(John-Steiner 67)27. Because ticcing has an emotional source – the emotional center or Limbic System – TS patients may be drawn to creative endeavors that deal with their emotions. They may even feel less of a need to tic when immersed in a creative act. Creative exploits dealing with emotions may give TS patients a feeling of “satisfaction” that they only feel when completing a tic. Lowell Handler describes his love for photography:
“When a photograph communicates emotionally it transcends the act and becomes an art. After I complete a day’s assignment, I feel satisfied,(both my emphasis) as if I have really accomplished something” (Handler 65)28.
Another TS patient that calls himself, Witty Ticcy Ray “could scarcely have survived – emotionally (my emphasis) or economically – had he not been a weekend jazz drummer of real virtuosity” (Sacks 92)29. His drum playing satisfied the ticcing urges of his TS immensely.
Because a creative activity engages the brain for a long uninterrupted amount of time, that feeling of “satisfaction” may even last longer than the feeling after the completion of a tic. Therefore, creative acts satisfy the “urges” of TS/OCD as much if not more than a tic.
The Basal Ganglia also play an important part in TS. They are “presumed to play a prominent role in the pathophysiology of TS”(Weiner 277)30. The Basal Ganglia “serve as way stations for a variety of sensory inputs…[and] also play an important role in receiving, sorting and coding sensory input on its way to cortical recognition and storage”(Treffert 181)31. Because the basal ganglia play an important role in TS, many tics are sensory related. An example is Lowell Handler’s need to touch objects repeatedly(Handler 2)32. Because of these tactile urges, TS patients feel, they sometimes develop a “heightened sensitivity to things that most others would not be at all attentive towards”(Saslow)33. Some TS sufferers have such a heightened sensitivity that they can tell which way the elastic in their socks is directed without even looking.
The way a person perceives the world is through his senses. Because TS patients have senses that are heightened and altered they are given a unique outlook on life. They see and feel the world in a way that ordinary people will never know. Part of the creative process or art itself, is showing the world around you in a way that has never been revealed. Van Gogh, who had his own mental problems, painted the world around him the way he saw it – a way that had never been seen before.
The psychology of creativity runs parallel to the psychology of TS/OCD. Firstly, both creative thinkers and TS/OCD patients tend to live on the fringes of society. Creative thought “involves the rejection of the established order [thus] the creative person is likely to appear rebellious, eccentric, even ‘crazy'”(Groch 224)34. When people depend on the “rules of society to give order to their consciousness [they] become anxious” and less able to create on their own terms (Csikszentmihalyi 86)35. TS/OCD patients cannot rely on the rules of society because no matter how hard they try it is impossible for them to abide to them. Their odd behavior usually scares people away from them and they are in turn misunderstood by those who shun them. Many famous people in history who were deemed crazy or “eccentric actually suffered from OCD”(Baer 5)36. Lowell Handler realized during his many travels across the United states that he was “an outcast even among outcasts”(Handler 19)37. The TS/OCD sufferer, much like the “artist…[is] exiled the periphery of society”(Groch 224)38.
Much of what pushes creative minds to the periphery of society is their unique way of thinking. Although this type of thinking can be alienating it can also have its rewards. One benefit is that creative minds have more of a potential to experience the pinnacle of creative thought – “flow.” The “flow” state is “an altered awareness found in people performing at their peak”(Goleman 22)39. It is when the artist falls in love with the simple act of creating. A painter who most savors “the joy of painting itself, valuing process more than product” is more likely to stay with painting even if he does not find financial success(Goleman 22)40. Flow is when creative and “psychic energy flows effortlessly” (Csikszentmihalyi 39)41.
There exists an unpredictable pattern that varies from artist to artist. Finding and mastering this pattern is part of surrendering to flow. That is what the creative process consists of – discovering this pattern within oneself. By being “totally faithful to one’s own individuality, we are actually following a very intricate design”(Nachmanovitch 26)42. The final creation is the culmination of an artist laying his soul bare. Each piece of art we create, “each piece of music we play, each dance, each drawing, each episode of life, reflects our own mind back at us, complete with all its imperfections, exactly as it is”(Nachmanovitch 25)43.
The internal pattern of TS/OCD is a unique and amazing one. When a TS patient learns more about himself and his infliction he begins to discover that “there is an order to it, a dance of symptomatology”(Monaghan 12)44. Every tic that seems so strange to those without TS, is a tic that is deeply imbedded within the psyche. Lowell Handler explains his TS as “a rhythm of energy, movement, sound, discovery, touch, smell, taste, feel, and sight”(Monaghan 12)45. Because TS/OCD patients have such a unique internal rhythm, they have more of an ability to create unique and never before seen art. Obviously when their “mind is reflected” back at them they will find an amazing and unique creation.
Many different cognitive skills bring upon flow. One of these skills is exploration. Creativity’s aim “is a very general one: exploration” (Boden 47)46. Those who are more susceptible to flow “are most clearly revealed by people who seem to enjoy situations that ordinary persons would find unbearable”(Csikszentmihalyi 90)47. The following excerpt illustrates this idea well:
“Lost in Antarctica or confined to a prison cell, some individuals succeed in transforming their harrowing conditions into a manageable and even enjoyable struggle, whereas most others would succumb to the ordeal. Richard Logan, who has studied the accounts of many people in difficult situations, concludes that they survived by finding ways to turn the bleak objective conditions into subjectively controllable experience. They followed the blueprint of flow activities . First, they paid close attention to the most minute details of their environment (my emphasis), discovering in it hidden opportunities for action that matched what little they were capable of doing, given the circumstances. Then they set goals appropriate to their precarious situation and closely monitored progress through the feedback they received. Whenever they reached their goal, they upped the ante, setting increasingly complex challenges for themselves” (Csikszentmihalyi 90).48
Obsessive exploring of the environment is a very common symptoms of TS/OCD sufferers. The following account illustrates a particular TS sufferer’s incessant explorations of his environment:
“The young man’s exploratory behavior was extreme and was certainly drawing attention. Everything on the street attracted him, a tree, an iron gridwork, a trash bin. He examined the objects compulsively and with all his senses. He looked, listened, touched. He smelled them by bringing his face very close to the objects, and tasted them by licking them with his tongue. When we walked into a neighborhood restaurant, he immediately felt up the middle-aged proprietress, who was, thankfully, a friend and let it go.”(Goldberg xvi)49.
There are many parallels between a personality more susceptible to flow and the personality of TS/OCD sufferers. Both make do with what they are given. By exploring their environment with all their senses, creative minds and TS/OCD patients alike are actually exploring the playing field of their mind as well. Each touch, each smell, and each observation causes electrical explosions and reactions in the brain of a TS/OCD patient. Each explosion and reaction leads to ideas, connections and revelations that can be acted upon. It was of course Thoreau, who when locked in a jail cell “did not for one moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar.”
Another type of mental exploration is play. It is defined as “the free spirit of exploration, doing and being for its own pure joy”(Nachmanovitch 43)50. Playing is exploring just for the fun of it. In fact “creativity has much in common with play”(Boden 46)51. Uninhibited play leads to many surprising discoveries that a more orthodox approach may never find. By playing a person frees himself “from arbitrary restrictions and expands [his] field of action”(Nachmanovitch 43)52. Richard Feynman, a world renowned physicist, explains the importance of play:
“Physics disgust me a little bit now, But I used to enjoy doing it. Why? I used to play with it…I’d invent things for my own entertainment”(Feynman 74)53.
One such discovery that he knew had “no importance whatsoever, [but he was] just doing it for the fun of it,” (Feynman 74)54 led to him winning the Nobel Prize. Because of their impulsive nature, TS/OCD patients often lack inhibitions that cause ordinary people to feel uncomfortable just “fooling around.” This lack of inhibitions “can lead to a greater sense of playfulness, a greater sense of creativity…and a liveliness”(Saslow)55. A common characteristic TS patients have is their obsession with playing with words. They often become “lost in the amusement park of the mind where they can spend hours turning over the vocal and mental variations in form, inflection, pitch, and even the meaning of a word or phrase”(Handler 37)56.
Samuel Johnson, a figure in history who is widely believed to have a case of OCD, would, when devoid of company, distract “his thoughts with some ingenious private game, frequently, these games were mathematical”(Quennell 68)57. Once, for example:
“‘When he greatly indisposed…with spasms in his Stomach’, he consoled his enforced solitude by attempting ‘an odd Calculation: no other than the National Debt…would, if converted into Silver, make a Meridian of that Metal for the real Globe of the Earth'”(Quennell 68)58.
This above examples illustrates perfectly the idea that creative people and TS/OCD sufferers can take an ordinarily unbearable situation and make it worthwhile experience and perhaps make a brilliant discovery in the process.
Another form of play and type of creative endeavor is improvisation. Artistic improvisation is a means to get rid of the internal critic and to just “let go.” Improvisation like flow is to surrender(Nachmanovitch 21)59. To improvise is to go on impulse. But an impulse is not meaningless, it “is not ‘just anything’; it is not without structure but is the expression of organic, immanent, self-creating structure” (Nachmanovitch 29)60. When a jazz musician goes off on a riff or a painter splatters paint on a canvas they are bypassing the inhibitions of the super-ego and following an inner muse. When a person improvises or is in a flow state he is “riding this flow, the choices and images open into each other so rapidly that [he has] no time to get scared and retreat from what intuition is telling [him]”
(Nachmanovitch 41)61. A skilled improviser is good at making associations and has a mind that is rushed with images and ideas.
A TS/OCD Patient has all the symptoms of a skilled improviser. Firstly, “TS personality traits indicate impulsivity”(Chase 38)62. TS/OCD patients are not afraid to act on their impulses and see what lays inside. Also, An OCD patient’s obsessions are “recurrent and persistent ideas, thoughts, impulses, or images” that flood the mind(Baer 9)63. It is said that, “thoughts were sure to rush into his mind” when Samuel Johnson was not engaged in conversation(Baer 6)64. And lastly, a TS personality often gains “advantage from the swiftness of thought and association and invention which [goes] with it”(Sacks 87)65. The TS patient Witty Ticcy Ray was,
“famous for his sudden and wild extemporizations, which would arise from a tic or a compulsive hitting of a drum and would instantly be made the nucleus of a wild and wonderful improvisation, so that the ‘sudden intruder’ would be turned into a brilliant advantage”(Sacks 92)66.
The above passage is further evidence that artistic output can give the same amount if not more satisfaction than a tic. In fact playful creativity and ticcing are so closely related that when a “Touretter sings, plays or acts, he in turn is completely liberated form his Tourette’s”(Sacks 91)67.
The physiological and psychological links of creativity and TS/OCD are very strong. TS/OCD symptoms and creative personality traits are so strongly linked that often when medication is taken and the symptoms of TS/OCD are lessened so are the creative personality traits. When Witty Ticcy Ray went on a medicine named Haldol, his tics decreased greatly, but he no longer experienced any of his “wild improvisations and inspirations”(Sacks 95) . He foresaw this outcome before going on Haldol when he postulated the following statement: “Suppose you could take away the tics…what would be left? I consist of tics – there’d be nothing left”(Sacks 93)69.
As research advances and knowledge increases, other means beside medication will be discovered to lessen the symptoms of tics. Methods such as behavioral therapy are already used for OCD. Also, brain surgery is being tested in Sweden . But what are the repercussions? Paige Vickery, a successful flutist and conductor wonders about this question. “‘What will it undo?’ she asks. “It could take away part of who you are'”(Goldberg xx)70. Will science ever be able to successfully separate the positive and the negative effects of a creativity personality? Will the price of creativity always be some form of mental “madness”? The Romantics, who from the beginning believed science could not solve everything, may be right after all.
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