Does musical genius correlate to mental disorder?

No. There are a load of people with mental disorders out there with no musical abilty and there are a lot of people with fantastic musical abilty and no mental disorder.

I think that would be much too difficult to generalize as a blanket statement since there are plenty of truly extraordinary musicians who are well balanced and about as far from mentally ill as you can imagine. Just a few off the top of my head would be Itzahk Perlmanm, Placido Domingo, Paul McCartney. There are tons of others.

And there are tons of mentally unstable people with no musical (or artistic) ability whatsoever.

But I do remember a news magazine feature on people with Williams Syndrom. This is a chromosomal abnormality with distinguishing characteristic of a high correlation with both extraordinary musical ability combined with severe mental deficits. An abnormally high percentage of those with Williams syndrome are born with perfect pitch and have a tremendous affinity for music.

There are also other concommitant characteristics both physical (elfin appearance) and personaity wise (extreme sociability) combined with severe mental deficits regarding functioning in real world situations and impaired judgement.

It was really a fascinating report. I believe it was on either CBS (60 Mins.) or ABC. can’t remember which but I’m sure you could find it.

So, in specific cases there can be a definite correlation between the two but not as a generalization or “rule of thumb”.

Substance abuse is it’s own category of mental disorders. Buuut it’s really hard to differentiate, for example, what would be someone’s bipolar and what would be that same person’s cocaine habit, especially without a proper intake.

Yes, there does seem to be some correlation. It’s been a long time since I looked into it, so I don’t have anything off the top of my head, but yes. That’s not to say that everyone with a mental disorder has musical gifts, or that everyone with musical genius has mental issues – there are tons who don’t fit this category – but, it does seem to happen. Starting point. Also to look up: idiot savant.

Or in place of “idiot savant” look up Asperger’s Syndrome…there are a lot of neuro-atypicals with musical abilities beyond that of NTs (neurotypicals). It is suspected that Mozart was on the spectrum. Reportedly, Adam Young of Owl City has stated he has Asperger’s.

Many with AS are musically inclined due to their hypersensitive hearing.

@SpatzieLover Well, look up both. The phenomenon goes beyond just Asperger’s, and that we’ve had the notion of “idiot savant” as a “thing” long before we recognized various mental disorders does suggest that there is a correlation.

idiot savant is the same as calling someone a retard. It is now called Asperger’s or high functioning autism

@SpatzieLover I’m not actually defending the use of the term. I am saying that in a historical context, that people had a name for this phenomenon suggests an actual existence of a correlation, and it can be a good starting point for research. History tends to be filled with things we find objectionable, but we don’t dismiss them as something not worth looking into just because of it. And no, autism and Asperger’s are not the only things that people a hundred years ago would have called “idiot savantness”.

www.williams-syndrome.org

Check out the Store section of this website for affordable video copies of each of the news reports.

One of them features the noted Neurologist (and author of several books) Dr. Oliver Sacks talking with several young people at a summer camp for kids with WS. Part of these talks were featured in the 60 Mins. piece.

Oliver Sacks is the real life Doctor portrayed by Robin Williams in the movie “Awakenings” which was based upon his work. He’s a charming as well as intelligent guy. Fascinating.

@Buttonstc Thanks for the good recommendation! I’m familiar with Dr. Sacks’ book, Musicophilia, and would probably find more solid information from his work on Williams syndrome.
@Aethelflaed I see what your saying as the question of musical talent being interrelated with mental illness is a very broad question; I will definately look into the idea of Asperger’s though.
@SpatzieLover That is very interesting…I’m interested in finding out how many other famous artists like Mozart fell into this category. Thanks for the insight.

@Greenbird89 There are a variety of lists on AS you can look at on the Net that may help you find other famous musicians with AS.

The last link provided will take you directly to an Aspie forum. You could do a search to see if anyone has done a paper similar to what you’re interested in…or you could find Aspies to interview from the forum.

I have been told that there are a higher number of creative people in the Bipolar population. It isn’t just music, but painting and writing. I’m told there are studies about this, but I don’t know what they are. You could probably find them. In any case, bipolar disorder is supposed to be associated with greater creativity and higher intelligence. On average.

As to your musical question, it couldn’t be hard to do a little research to see if there are any studies about this. Have you done that research yet?

Rarely. I’ve heard of a few Asperger cases with extraordinary musical listening skills.