For at least a century, mental illness and the arts have mutually influenced one another. Scientists have long studied the link between creativity and mental illness, and the lines between the two are often blurred. Studies suggest that creative people often share more personality traits with the mentally ill than normal people in less creative pursuits. One Stanford University study compared patients with bipolar disorder with a group of healthy people. They found that graduate students in creative disciplines shared more personality traits with the bipolar patients than with their healthy but less creative peers, according to a study published in [url]The Journal of Affective Disorders[/url].
There is a (free) new exhibition at the Wellcome Trust exploring this:
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/exhibitionsandevents/Art-and-mental-illness/index.htm
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