Why creative people are eccentric — PILGRIM SOUL

Why is it that highly creative people often seem different than the rest of us? Dr. Shelley Carson, who researches creativity, psychopathology, and resilience at Harvard University, tries to answer this question in the May/June 2011 issue of Scientific American.

The Pilgrim Soul Creative Thinking Journal is Now Available

In Carson’s article, titled The Unleashed Mind, she looks at how creativity and eccentricity are often linked. This is shown throughout history from famous creatives who had slightly odd behavior. Carson gives the example of Albert Einstein, who used to pick cigarettes butts off the ground and use the tobacco for his pipe or Charles Dickens who believed he was being followed by characters from his novels. This realization goes back as far as Plato and Aristotle, who both noted that poets and playwrights often had peculiar behavior.

Recent research shows that people who are creative and eccentric may be that way because of how the brain filters incoming information. Researchers use creative achievements — like a person’s participation in creative activities or their ability to think…