CRISPR, Why Not? The Hidden Link Between Mental Illness & Creativity (Opinion)

 by Rylan Hoffius
 In the modern age, we hold the power to change the face of our planet, split an atom in two, and even change our own genome. Genetic modification technology holds great promise for reducing suffering and inheritable disorders, including mental illness. The ethical and medical ramifications are immense and complex to say the least, but one question that seems unanswered is would there be negative effects from removing these genes. Today we will examine at whether there is a correlation between increased creativity and mental illness.
 First, what is creativity? According to renowned psychologist, Carl Jung creativity is the capacity to produce both novel (original) and adaptable (functional) ideas. Creativity is something fundamental to our species, and something most people have to learn. Some however are believed to be born with an inclination towards being creative.
 Genetic diversity is widely accepted as an important part of the survival and success of a species, with variations in populations allowing for the species to survive changes in the environment and react to differing conditions. This also applies to phenotypes and neurodiversity. Differences in neurons mean more unique ways of looking at the world, meaning solutions are achieved faster, and people are better at occupying different niches in society.
 So how does neurodiversity, and mental illness play into traits like creativity? Are things like schizophrenia, autism, and bipolar disorder an evolutionary advantage that occur from natural selection, are they random and negative mutations that are being selected against, or something in between?  
 “In a recent report based on a 40-year study of roughly 1.2 million Swedish people, Simon Kyaga and colleagues found that with the exception of bi-polar disorder, those in scientific and artistic occupations were not more likely to suffer from psychiatric disorders. So full-blown mental illness did not increase the probability of entering a creative profession (even the exception, bi-polar disorder, showed only a small effect of 8%).
 What was striking, however, was that the siblings of patients with autism and the first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and anorexia nervosa were significantly overrepresented in creative professions (Scientific American).”
 What this suggests is that certain genetic traits related to mental illness act like the heterozygotic advantage of those with sickle cell, meaning that people who are homozygous dominant are unaffected, and people who are homozygous recessive suffer the full fledge harms while those who are heterozygous experience the happy medium which allows for the gene to be preserved and carriers to reproduce.
 However, more research needs to be done on the subject, and the different mental illnesses seem to have different correlations, as well as differences between creative professions: such as writers having more personality disorders compared to other creative professions. In fact, most disorders on the autism spectrum seem to lower creativity and the ability to understand abstract concepts, part of the reason why those who have autism find difficulty with socialization and comprehension.
​ While we have a lot to learn, the link between creativity and some forms of mental illness is real, with large ramifications for our society. We might find that if we edit our genome to remove these traits, we may find ourselves a whole lot less imaginative, creative, and able to solve the problems the world faces.