I recently renewed my look into the link between genius and mental illness. It is something I've had a life long interest in and regularly check around to see what, if any, new discoveries have been made. The advent of fMRI is opening many new avenues into explanations of the mysteries of the mind.
What really caught my attention is a study that found thirty-eight percent (38%) of people in the creative professions succumb to mental illness as opposed to two percent (2%) of the general population. People have long associated artists and musicians with mental illness. Some claim that the high rate of mental disorders among such creative types of people make them more understanding an accepting, which in turn, draws more people into these professions.
Is it any wonder that Midtown and the Cass Corridor have been magnets for the arts? The Detroit Wayne County Community Mental Health office is also smack dab in the center of the burgeoning arts community. With the Detroit being ground zero for the recent economic meltdown, the low cost of living here has caused the art scene to mushroom and flourish. The so call "blank canvas" of the abandoned inner city with it's post industial ruins are a fertile ground for people who think outside the box to try new ideas.
I hope it is all for the better but, sometimes I have my doubts. It was not very long ago that the streets of downtown Detroit and Pontiac were called, argueably, the largest mental health care facility in the State. Second only to the criminal justice system.
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