The Compulsion To Create
The best you can hope for in this life is that your delusions are benign and your compulsions have utility. - Scott Adams
When I first read this from artist Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert cartoon. it kinda sent a bunch of my synapses firing. I found this concept totally intriguing and plan to get a little introspective about it here.
Consider yourself warned.
Discipline vs. Compulsion
When I used to run five miles every day (Hard to believe I know. One year I missed only day. I ran in rain and snow and what have you) I considered myself disciplined and athletic. But if someone felt the need to flip a light switch on and off, or wash their hands repeatedly, it is considered OCD.
There’s a fine line between crazy and entrepreneurial.
If you bark at the moon to make it go away, you are considered crazy.
But if you start a business for which there is less than a 5% chance of success, you are considered an entrepreneur.
- Scott Adams
Genius vs. Insanity
There’s a fine line between genius and insanity. And it’s only a matter of degrees (or perhaps perceptions) that define one from the other. An artist who creates into the wee hours jacked up on coffee, booze or in my case diet Coke, until they collapse in exhaustion may be viewed as passionate and brilliant. But take that same person and have them creating something like a bomb shelter or something viewed as having no real benefit is seen as crazy.
To split this distinction even finer. An artist who paints traditional art of landscapes or florals (or say critter paintings) is seen as normal. I mean these are normal things to paint and normal to have hanging on your wall. But when an artist paints dark images or uses something macabre in their work their sanity is pulled more into question.
I know several artists whose work is dark or weird. One of them is one of the funniest, happy people I know. They use art as a way to get the craziness and chaos out of them. Whereas, I use art to connect with critters in a new way. But also, it’s a way to distract myself from the craziness and chaos around me.
So what do you think?
Where’s the line between crazy and genius drawn? How about between passionate or compulsive?
Tags: rants
Both good questions, and I have no clear answer for either. As you say, it is all about perceptions of what society deems normal.
You could stay up all night working on your latest project, feeling all fired up with no need for sleep, and that’s because you are an artist. But when the same thing happens to a certain friend of mine, his medication is changed.
In my case, I have a complusion to create but still can’t seem to motivate myself to do it - now that’s craziness.
Seems like the difference is how socially acceptable the results are. I know I’ve done a lot of dark subjects in the past, it was a reflection of the situation I was living in at the time and I had no interest in doing pretty landscapes or flowers. Only much later did I take an interest in those things.
It’s social success afterward that changes the label. If people don’t like you or disapprove of your creative works or their subjects, they’ll call it compulsive. Sell it for a lot of money and all of a sudden it’s disciplined genius.
Which means you have to judge it for yourself.
Which is why I don’t put down the man who spent his life collecting bus tickets around the world — he traveled to do so, he did something interesting that no one else had, it’s cool. It’s something he wanted. Or people who collect comics. There are some styles of art that I’m not personally fond of for various reasons but I can usually spot who’d be interested in them.
Undaunted,
You and I have similar friends so I think that is what caught me so much by the quote. It’s all so much a matter of perception and if what is created is usable or functional.
Robert,
“the difference is how socially acceptable the results are.” Exactly so. But that’s what I found so fascinating.
Since I have to do alot of reading/research for counseling, I may look of some of the psychological research on creating and add to this discussion later. I tend to agree on Robert’s statement. I did love being in eat, sleep, work jag the last few days. Would do more of that if didn’t have a farm to keep.