Re: CHAT: conlangs and mental illness

> I think it's more likely that creativity correlates with some kinds of mental
> disorder, including the one most frequently cited on the list, mild to
> moderate depression.
Personally I don't feel especially creative when even mildly or moderately
depressed (as compared to creativity when feeling fine) though you can't really
make any sweeping generalizations about this subject. It's possible to be
creative *despite* the depression so long as it is not too severe.  It may well
be that especially creative people tend to become depressed, though.


>
> The only way I can imagine the 80%/60% statistics you mention being true, is
> if  you count things like being prescribed tranquilizers for mild anxiety,
> which can be a fashionable thing for people to do, I guess.  Valium and all
> that, Ritalin for the kids.  But I think that's the sort of thing that you can
> write off to silly medical fads.
Mm-hm.  The 60%-80% would be an upper limit of sorts; anything below that is
just a matter of where you draw the line between clinically ill and not.

JJS