Freshman art student Alissa Angelini was not sure if she would fit in with her classmates at Ohio University because of stereotypes associated with artists.
Everyone judges art students to be 'different
' but it's not true Angelini said.
These differences have to do with popular perceptions of artistic people, including that creative people tend to be moody.
Reports from CNN and Psychiatric News say that creative people often suffer from forms of mental illness. According to CNN.com, mental illness is not the cause of creativity and creativity does not contribute to mental illness; but, certain personality types may correspond with both mental instability and artistic ability.
The reports released by CNN suggest that creative people suffer from an increased rate of bipolar and depressive disorders.
Students said they were not convinced by the study.
I guess you can express your emotions through your art but sometimes your work is affected by how you feel
Angelini said. If I am happy
[the work] is clear and more consistent
whereas if I were in a bad mood it would be more abstract.
In some cases, students could be less motivated after a hard day, said Diane Zeidman, a freshman studying art.
It's not that I'm not an emotional person
Zeidman said. [Art] is just a different way of seeing things
but not necessarily a more emotional way.
Although emotion is often portrayed through artwork, the link between creativity and mental illness is not direct, said Julie Suhr, an associate professor of psychology at OU.
When you look at the research
the strongest relation [between creativity and mood disorders] is in relatives of people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia
not the people with them
said Suhr.
Relatives of people with mood disorders are generally more creative but these illnesses are not desirable, Suhr said.
When people suffer from severe depression their thoughts are not creative, just hopeless and negative
