ABSTRACT
The notion of the 'mad, creative genius' is a well-established one, with both a rich historical and contemporary context, from Aristotle's well-known assertion that 'there was never a genius without a tincture of madness' to biographies of modern poets, comedians and writers who struggled with mental health issues. This chapter considers and reviews some complexities made of the empirical and theoretical associations between creativity, schizotypy and well-being. A number of models are proposed to explain the relationship between creativity and psychopathology. Different components of schizotypy relate differentially to different types of creativity. A complex interaction between neurocognitive, affective, motivational and self-regulatory factors may be required to best model the relationships between 'creativities' and 'schizotypies'. The various neurocognitive parallels have been drawn between creativity and schizotypy that requires further refinement and development, though these models are not necessarily incompatible.
