ABSTRACT
Psychoticism leads to creativity, which when joined synergistically with motivational and cognitive traits, and sociocultural variables, may under favourable circumstances, result in the outstanding creative achievement. Theories of schizophrenia have emphasized its cognitive dysfunction, and there is much agreement with the notion that schizophrenia has a major attentional deficit component. Scientists tend to consider in their theorising only data that are judged to be "relevant." But this is an elusive concept; difficult problems often find their solutions in terms of data and ideas not considered relevant by experts. The widespread notion that unlike lawyers, scientists are only concerned with the truth, and do not indulge in adversarial practices, is simply untrue. Jeff Gray has drawn attention to a large empirical literature when he says, of schizophrenia, that "there is a weakening of the capacity to select for cognitive processing only those stimuli that, given past experience of similar contexts, are relevant."
