But even that is just surface level I think. What is it that makes depressed people artists? Or vice versa.
I agree. But to be fair to the article (and to the research which it addresses) the term 'psychopathological traits'. I'm gonna guess that we all have a few of those.
> But even that is just surface level I think. What is it that makes depressed people artists? Or vice versa.
An excellent question, and likely very hard to answer definitely. I can make a simple observation: that it is hard to imagine a work of art that does not strive for excess: excessive beauty, excessive grandeur, excessive horror etc. Hence, an artist is sort of like an astronaut of the emotions, 'boldly going' to outlying states. This job description is not amicable with peace of mind and restfulness.
This might be what attracts neurotic types to becoming artists... to exorcise whatever angels or demons keep them awake at night. Alternately, it might be a causal mechanism for turning perfectly stable artists into neurotic types.
Perhaps this phenomenon can better be expressed as 'exaggeration', which is a form of excess. The fact that artists exaggerate upon nature is an observable fact. My own work on color contrast proves this fairly conclusively.
The Mona Lisa is an exaggeration of foreground/background contrast, of the-pose-at-rest vs dynamic tension, of feminine beauty juxtaposed with the beauty of nature etc.