Bulgarian Journal of Psychiatry, 2019; 4(2):45-51
THE TEMPERAMENTAL TYPOLOGY OF ERNST KRETSCHMER AND CREATIVITY: AN ATTEMPT FOR NEURO-BIOPSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATION AND PHILOSOPHICAL ELUCIDATION
Abstract. In the current paper, the temperament typology of Ernst Kretschmer or the so-called schizothymic and cycloid temperaments are reviewed. A scientific neurobiopsychological explanation that culminates in a general philosophical elucidation is offered. On the basis of the research in the area of psychology of creativity it is concluded that creativity as a personality trait represents a combination of schizothymic and cycloid traits of the character, whereas, at the biological level, it represents a combination of a mesolimbic hyperdopaminergia along with a preserved mesocortical dopaminergic function. From this perspective, creativity represents an adaptive evolutional function of coping with everyday problems, which, paradoxically, is related to the psychotic spectrum of mental disorders. Why and how creativity has led to psychosis or vice versa, why and how psychosis has led to creativity, remains an open question, which requires further research. The relation creativity–psychosis is not a random one perhaps and most probably it represents a question of the intermixture of endogenous and exogenous noxae.
Key words: Ernst Kretschmer, temperament typology, psychotic spectrum, dopaminergic function, creativity, neurobiopsychology, philosophy of psychiatry
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