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There may be a link between mental illness and creativity because that would explain why some of the greatest and most ground-breaking composers of classical music are believed to have been mentally ill. How do we know? Through evidence such as family history of mental illness, incarceration in the then-called "insane asylums," vivid descriptions of their emotional experiences in letters to intimates, and of course, in the music itself.

On May 5th, an evening of great music from composers who lived with bipolar disorder was performed at the Peter Norton Symphony Space on the Upper West Side. Co-sponsored by the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance and Janssen Pharmaceutica, the event included an educational piece about bipolar disorder, which more than 2 million Americans suffer from, including an estimated 80,000 in New York City alone.

Works from composers Charles Ives (1874-1954), Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), Robert Schumann (1810-1856), and Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), all believed to have been bipolar, were performed.

City Voices approached Dr. Richard Kogan, psychiatrist and concert pianist who performed selections from Schumann, and asked: "What is the connection between mental illness and creativity?"

Dr. Kogan has combined his professional pursuits by giving lectures and performances that explore how the psychiatric illnesses of the great composers influenced their creative output. He answered that there is an intimate connection between mental illness and creativity, especially with bipolar disorder. High with mania, people with bipolar experience increased energy, imagination, and rapidity of thought.

According to Arnold M. Ludwig's 1998 Creative Research Journal article "Method and Madness in the Arts and Sciences," a powerful relation exists between the presence or absence of mental illness and particular forms of creative expression both between and within the arts and sciences.

Ludwig showed that among the scientists, a higher lifetime prevalence of mental illness was found in social scientists (e.g., psychologists, economists) compared to natural scientists (e.g., biologists, physicists). Among the creative artists, the visual artists and writers had higher rates than the more formal professionals such as architects, musical composers and designers—with the more performance-oriented professions (e.g., musicians, dancers) rating in between these extremes. Creative artists in general had much higher rates of mental illness than the scientists.

Examining the literary creative artists further, he found that poets, who tended to be the most emotional and introspective among all writers, had much higher rates of mental illness than nonfiction writers (e.g., critics, journalists, biographers), who tended to be the most rational and analytic. Investigating the visual artists further, he found a comparable relationship. Those artists who belonged to a movement that emphasized more expressive or emotional elements had much higher rates of mental illness than those who belonged to movements that emphasized more formal and rational elements.

Though Ludwig's findings do not define a clear relationship between mental illness and creativity, it does illustrate the presence or absence of mental illness and particular forms of creative expression. The pattern is that the more a profession relies on mathematical, formal and objective modes of creative expression or problem-solving, the lower the prevalence of mental illness in its members; the more a profession relies on emotional elements and subjective forms of creative expression, the higher the prevalence.

If there is a true connection between mental illness and creativity and the world believes it, would the world treat the mentally ill any differently? Probably not, but it might make the world a little jealous.