Two essential factors propelling the sustainable growth of human society are creativity and mental wellness. Given the ongoing global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical to address the growing risks to people’s mental health and creativity. As per the World Health Organization, mental illness is not an uncommon occurrence, in contrast to genius.
According to a recent survey conducted by the American Psychological Association at the end of June 2020, 31% of participants reported having symptoms of depression or anxiety, 13% reported beginning or increasing their use of drugs, 26% reported symptoms related to stress, and 11% reported having had serious suicidal thoughts in the 30 days prior.
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Essentially, creativity can assist people in finding purpose and meaning during the pandemic by providing them with pleasure and enjoyment, for example, but it can also assist them in feeling a greater sense of purpose in a number of ways, such as by improving career narratives about their meaning-making at work. But there are other factors at play here as well, such as creativity’s significance in scientific research and technological advancements, which has contributed to the epidemic’s need for it.
Generally speaking, creativity is the ability to generate novel and valuable ideas that can assist scientists and medical professionals in making ground-breaking discoveries in the development of vaccines and the control of epidemics, ultimately leading to the saving of more lives. Examining the relationship between creativity and mental health is crucial in this regard.
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The long-standing interest in the madness-creativity nexus, also known as the mad genius hypothesis, as demonstrated by creative individuals who suffer from or have suffered from serious mental disorders, like Vincent van Gogh, is another compelling reason to investigate this topic. This nexus is one of the most ancient, contentious, and frequently discussed issues in the field of creativity. However, the current study assesses a long-standing dispute in the field of creativity and/or mental health. Future research on the relationship between creativity and well-being as well as health behaviors will benefit greatly from this study.
When considered collectively, these findings offer a fresh and helpful viewpoint for assessing the connection between mental health and creativity, which has numerous theoretical or applied ramifications. This research specifically aims to reconcile the disparate and even contradictory empirical data addressing the relationship between creativity and mental health. It is a perspective study or brief review that focuses on the relationship between creativity and mental health.
By demonstrating the beneficial role of creativity as a strategy to regulate negative emotion and improve positive mental health through creatively reducing negative experiences and insightful or creative reappraisal toward negative situations or things, the current research, on the one hand, significantly contributes to facilitating positive mental health.
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First, this study suggests that future research on the relationship between creativity and mental health should differentiate between people’s strategic and dispositional creativity and build creativity-based mental health adjustment skills and strategies to enhance coping mechanisms and mental health literacy. Deepening the examination of the notion and framework of mental health literacy while concentrating on the concepts, abilities, and processes related to creativity was another significant component of this research.
In practice, this study will advance our understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of creativity and mental health, as well as the models that support them, and encourage the use of creativity in the field of mental health. Here, the development of creative regulation techniques and/or creative reappraisal skills is seen as a crucial part of mental health literacy, with particular attention paid to the effects of cognitive reappraisal of creativity. and emotional cognitive reappraisal on (emotional) mental health.
