ABSTRACT
The second meaning of the term spectrum implies that there is a continuum of severity in psychological disturbance ranging downward from exemplary functioning to normality (however defined), through subclinical symptoms, to less severe psychopathology (e.g., schizotypal personality disorder), to the most severe mental disorders. In this "vertical spectrum" of degree of severity, the more extreme as well as the less disabling disorders are seen as being on a continuum with each other and with normality. The notion of a vertical schizophrenia spectrum allows a focus on symptoms as continuous traits, helps in understanding psychological processes underlying both creativity and psychopathology, and eventually points toward exam-
ining the ongoing and fluctuating person-environment transactions and temporal dynamics involved in both psychopathology and health. Continuum approaches lead naturally to dynamic conceptualizations of the vicissitudes, the ebb and flow (see Thorne & Miller, 1994) of creativity, as well as psychopathology and normal personality functioning, in an individual over time, in the course of daily life.
