01-12-2014, 10:51 AM
Well, this topic has a bit more to it than it could seem at the first glance:) Because, psychologically, there actually is a kind of common denominator which could scientifically support the "geek" tendency among artists.
And that would be the schizoid personality disorder - now, no need to be alarmed:) The term is a bit unlucky in a sense that it's pretty much 0 or 1 in it's nature, which is far from truth. There are A LOT of degrees of schizoid tendencies which don't qualify as the actual disorder. And also, a lot of people have schizoid personality to some degree.
Basically, schizoid tendencies roughly mean that the person has the tendency to spend time outside of reality. Now it's far more clear how it could be a perfectly benign condition and also how it could be a pretty severe condition, depending on the level of schizoid-ness:)
And, spending time outside reality pretty much translates as being creative and having vivid imagination:) Generally, as a group, artists tend to be more schizoid than the other professions. Actually, painters should be the most schizoid profession on average.
So, basically, schizoid tendencies are actually the fuel that has driven a lot of artists to produce art:)
Those tendencies aren't just reflected in "artsy" creativity. For example, you could daydream a lot more and in a better "quality" than the "regular" person. You meet a girl, fall in love and you daydream about her for about five hours and not only that, but after an hour, you are already at the stage with having a house and two kids or something:) And it's not just thinking about it, you are literally doing that and being there psychologically. That would be an example of a schizoid behavior. Of course, on a scale of 0-100, there is no person that is 0 or 100, so everybody exhibits some degree of schizoid personality (as it is the case with right about every psychological condition). That means that someone could daydream or fantasize or worry like 5 mins a day and someone could be highly socially autistic, lying on their bed, not communicating with people at all and even having occasional hallucinations.
If you look up the schizoid personality disorder, you would see that it could be connected to social autism, apathy, vivid imagination etc. In a low degree, these all very much correspond to your typical geek dude.
So, yeah, schizoid tendencies, while they do produce negative effects (wasting time, laziness, fear, overthinking, social autism, apathy etc. in various degrees), they are in fact responsible for some of the most fascinating works of art in human history:)
I have the honor to know a man who is a very successful psychotherapist, and he keeps his own statistics (although leisurely) - which is pretty valid, since he had something like 10 000 patients (he is 74 and he's been doing it for like 30 or 40 years and he has a shock therapy system which a kind of do or die short intervention, I digress, but I write this just because I know the number seems ridiculous, so now it should seem less ridiculous:) ). And something like 90% of his clients that came to him due to schizoid related problems are painters:) And on the second place are, wait for it, IT engineers:D
edit - by "painters" of course I don't mean only fine art dudes, but commercial illustrators and concept artists as well:)
And that would be the schizoid personality disorder - now, no need to be alarmed:) The term is a bit unlucky in a sense that it's pretty much 0 or 1 in it's nature, which is far from truth. There are A LOT of degrees of schizoid tendencies which don't qualify as the actual disorder. And also, a lot of people have schizoid personality to some degree.
Basically, schizoid tendencies roughly mean that the person has the tendency to spend time outside of reality. Now it's far more clear how it could be a perfectly benign condition and also how it could be a pretty severe condition, depending on the level of schizoid-ness:)
And, spending time outside reality pretty much translates as being creative and having vivid imagination:) Generally, as a group, artists tend to be more schizoid than the other professions. Actually, painters should be the most schizoid profession on average.
So, basically, schizoid tendencies are actually the fuel that has driven a lot of artists to produce art:)
Those tendencies aren't just reflected in "artsy" creativity. For example, you could daydream a lot more and in a better "quality" than the "regular" person. You meet a girl, fall in love and you daydream about her for about five hours and not only that, but after an hour, you are already at the stage with having a house and two kids or something:) And it's not just thinking about it, you are literally doing that and being there psychologically. That would be an example of a schizoid behavior. Of course, on a scale of 0-100, there is no person that is 0 or 100, so everybody exhibits some degree of schizoid personality (as it is the case with right about every psychological condition). That means that someone could daydream or fantasize or worry like 5 mins a day and someone could be highly socially autistic, lying on their bed, not communicating with people at all and even having occasional hallucinations.
If you look up the schizoid personality disorder, you would see that it could be connected to social autism, apathy, vivid imagination etc. In a low degree, these all very much correspond to your typical geek dude.
So, yeah, schizoid tendencies, while they do produce negative effects (wasting time, laziness, fear, overthinking, social autism, apathy etc. in various degrees), they are in fact responsible for some of the most fascinating works of art in human history:)
I have the honor to know a man who is a very successful psychotherapist, and he keeps his own statistics (although leisurely) - which is pretty valid, since he had something like 10 000 patients (he is 74 and he's been doing it for like 30 or 40 years and he has a shock therapy system which a kind of do or die short intervention, I digress, but I write this just because I know the number seems ridiculous, so now it should seem less ridiculous:) ). And something like 90% of his clients that came to him due to schizoid related problems are painters:) And on the second place are, wait for it, IT engineers:D
edit - by "painters" of course I don't mean only fine art dudes, but commercial illustrators and concept artists as well:)