In a recent study reported in Schizophrenia Bulletin, Nelson and Rawlings propose that a mild form of schizophrenia called schizotypy may be positively associated with the experience of creative flow. Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental illness that affects roughly 1% of the population and involves altered states of consciousness and "abnormal" perceptual experiences. Schizotypy, which is a watered-down version of schizophrenia, consists of a constellation of personality traits that are evident in some degree in everyone.

High levels of schizotypy are typically found in relatives of individuals with full fledged schizophrenia. Some researchers have proposed that the genes that underlie schizophrenia may remain in the human gene pool because of the benefits those with schizotypy receive in terms of creativity; those with schizotypy have the genes that that may contribute to creativity without the debilitating genes that would prevent them from achieving their maximum potential.

Research confirms a link between schizotypy and creative achievement. In particular, "positive" schizotypal traits such as unusual perceptual experiences and magical beliefs tend to be elevated in artists and "negative" schizotypal traits such as physical and social anhedonia and introversion tend to be associated with mathematical and scientific creativity.

But what about the connection between schizotypy and flow? Nelson and Rawlings make the intriguing suggestion that

"Positive schizotypy is associated with central features of ‘flow'-type experience, including distinct shift in phenomenological experience, deep absorption, focus on present experience, and sense of pleasure."

Similarly, in her fascinating and informative book Writing in Flow, Susan K. Perry comments that

"It shouldn't play into any of your anxieties about the loss of control that comes with flow if I share with you that looseness and the ability to cross mental boundaries are aspects of both schizophrenic thinking and creative thinking."

To examine the connection between positive schizotypy and the experience of flow, Nelson and Rawlings had a sample of 100 artists from a wide range of artistic fields (including music, visual arts, theatre, and literature) report aspects of their personality, their experiences of creativity, and their levels of "postitive" schizotypal traits such as affective disturbance and mental boundaries.

Their Experience of Creativity Questionnaire measured the following components:

Distinct Experience, "related to the creative process being a definite shift in nature or type of experience. This change in experience included such aspects as loss of self-awareness, a breakdown of boundaries, a sense of contact with a force beyond the individual self, and a confidence and effortlessness about the artistic activity."

Anxiety, "related to a sense of anxiety and vulnerability associated with the creative process, particularly after completion of the process."

Absorption, related to "the artist's feeling inspired and being deeply absorbed in the artistic activity."

Power/Pleasure , "related to a sense of control, power, and pleasure felt during the creative process."

Clarity/Preparation, "a sense of certainty and clarity about the direction in which the artistic activity should proceed, including the meaning of the piece of work, and to cultivating an appropriate mood for the creative process."

Consistent with prior research, they found that their sample of artists scored higher than the average population (based on norm data) on the positive schizotypal traits of unipolar affective disturbance and thin boundaries as well as the personality traits of Openness to Experience and Neuroticism.

Interestingly, they didn't replicate research showing elevated levels of bipolar mood disorder in artists. As a possible explanation, the researchers point out that their sample consists of mainly contemporary artists. As they point out, "creativity is a construct that varies not only across fields, but also across styles and artistic movements."

Indeed, clinical psychologist Louis A. Sass notes in his article, "Schizophrenia, Modernism and the 'Creative Imagination': On Creativity and Psychopathology," that most of the prior work on the link between bipolar and artistic creativity has been based on eminent classical artists from earlier periods, particularly the Romantic period. In his book, "Madness and Modernism: Insanity in the Light of Modern Art, Literature and Thought," Sass further makes the case that modernistic and postmodern artists report psychotic or schizotypal experiences.

According to Nelson and Rawlings:

"These affinities include an adversarial stance, perspectivism and relativism, a certain fragmentation and passivization of the ego, loss of the ''worldhood of the world,'' rejection or loss of the sense of temporal flow or narrative unity, forms of intense self-reference and extreme and pervasive detachment or emotional distancing."

Most interestingly, Nelson and Rawlings found that the positive schizotypal traits of unipolar affective disturbance and thin boundaries were significantly associated with four components from their Experience of Creativity Questionnaire: distinct experience, anxiety, absorption, and power/pleasure. Note that three of these components (distinct experience, absorption, and power/pleasure) are directly related to the experience of flow.

These findings are fascinating and beg the question: what mechanism or set of mechanisms account for the association between schizotypy and the experience of flow? The researchers argue that latent inhibition is of particular relevance to understanding this association (also see Schizophrenic Thought: Madness or Potential for Genius? and Are People With Schizophrenia Living a Dream?).