Mental illness and creativity

There has always been a link between mental illness and creativity, it has been consider as an idea since Aristotle. Then in the 1970's there was found to be a more direct link between bipolar and creativity. There was a study done by psychologist J Rushton that found that people that suffer from schizophrenia, depression and bipolar are more likely to be creative individuals and have a creative profession than someone who doesn't suffer from the condition. 

However more recent research to do with mood creativity suggests that to produce creative work you need to be in a positive mood, but when you suffer from these conditions you are usually in the opposite of this. Further research now suggests that creativity is now suggested to lead to a mental illness. It is also suggested that when suffering from a mental illness some suffers to release stress create art, which may not make sense and might simply be a repetitive make, and make making, something that gets stuck in there head. This is particularly common with cases of schizophrenia.

Famous artists such as Sylvia Plath and Van Gogh have both suffered with mental illness in the public view, Van Gogh is commonly referred to as the tortured artist. Creative people tend to be able to "think outside the box" which is how a mental illness may also be able to form it is now proven. I could go into great complexity about which part is which, but it's way behind my understanding and could only be understood by someone who studies the brain religiously. Another connection that they where able to make is that creative people can find many solutions to  a problem something that tends to be a quality of a mentally ill patient. 

I want to research further into conditions that involve obsessive drawing and writing and then from this begin to create drawings reflecting on my research which I can can then develop, but at the same time continue to research this link between art and mental illnesses. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity_and_mental_illness