Mental Illness Link to Art and Sex

Pablo Picasso, Photograph: AP, 1953

"From Lord Byron to Dylan Thomas and beyond, the famous philanderers of the art world may have had a touch of mental illness to thank for their behaviour, psychologists report today."

"A survey comparing mental health and the number of sexual partners among the general population, artists and schizophrenics found that artists are more likely to share key behavioural traits with schizophrenics, and that they have on average twice as many sexual partners as the rest of the population."

"Daniel Nettle, a psychologist at Newcastle University, and Helen Clegg, at the Open University in Milton Keynes, carried out the survey in the hope it would answer a question that has been puzzling scientists for some time. Schizophrenia is so debilitating that those with the condition are often socially isolated, have trouble maintaining relationships and so reproduce at a much lower rate than the general population. But cases of schizophrenia remain high, at around 1% of the population. "On the face of it, Darwinism would suggest that the genes predisposing to schizophrenia would eventually disappear from the gene pool," said Dr Nettle."

- Ian Sample, Science correspondent, The Guardian, Wednesday, 30 November 2005

Link Full Article, The guardian.co.uk