Creativity and substance abuse
Though we lament that the reading habit is dead today, reading was
described as a “Reading Mania” or a “Reading Fever”, in the 18th
century. Reading was considered a disease or epidemic associating it
with physical exhaustion, the rejection of reality, and bodily
immobility.
“Novels which sprouted up like mushrooms during the 18th century,
stand out for their drug like qualities.” (Adrian Jones, 1996). William
Warner discussed about the addictive page-turning quality of fiction.
Daniel Lord Smail called the 18th century as the Century of Addiction.
This was also the time of De-Christianization in Europe, when man
gave up God in favour of Mammon, when religion and ritual were replaced
by more items for consumption, to release substances like dopamine and
other psychotropic chemicals.
Creativity is affected by substance abuse. The World Health
Organization says “Substance abuse refers to the harmful or hazardous
use of psychoactive substances, including alcohol and illicit drugs.
Psychoactive substance use can lead to dependence syndrome - a cluster
of behavioural, cognitive, and physiological phenomena that develop
after repeated substance use...”
While we consider only alcohol and drugs as “substances”, the term
covers all harmful psychoactive substances. This includes tea, coffee
and even milk. At least 80 percent of the world population consume
caffeine in some form, like tea, coffee, soft drinks and chocolates. By
consuming the milk of other animals we introduce into our bodies Casein,
which breaks down to produce casomorphine, which is a morphine-like
opiod.
We talk about other people who get addicted to other psychoactive
substances, which we believe include only alcohol and drugs, while we
get addicted to tea, coffee and milk based products. We believe that
such substances stimulate our brains, our thinking and creative powers.
There are people who claim they write or paint or sing better when
they are drunk, or after a shot of cocaine. Or they have to smoke
tobacco in some form or other. All these people believe that these drugs
help them to work. That these chemicals stimulate their brains.
“I throw myself headlong into my work, and come up again with my
studies; if the storm within gets too loud, I take a glass too much to
stun myself.” said Vincent van Gogh and the glass was absinthe, (45 – 74
percent alcohol by volume), and he had immortalized the drink in his own
work.
Does a really creative writer need any form of stimulation to create
a masterpiece? If we extend this argument to other spheres of human
activities, then we should not ban Nandralone and Methylphenidate and
other such performance enhancing drugs for athletes, or punish these
athletes for using them, or we should ban tea, coffee and milk too.
This also leads us to Cognitive enhancers which stimulate the brain.
If man’s creativity becomes dependent on such drugs then we should also
expect such creativity to be the outcome of the side effects of these
drugs, the outcome of hallucinations.
In our part of the world our women do not consume alcohol or tobacco.
Yet they create masterpieces. They sing wonderfully. Unless their
psychological and biological systems are different from that of the
male, it would be difficult to justify substance abuse only by the male
as a need for creativity. Then our women would not be able to do any
really good creative writing or sing a song!
It was in the 18th Century when creativity took a new turn, as it too
became commercialized. It was at the same time that addictive substances
became big business. “The discovery of spirits, the arrival of tobacco,
sugar, coffee and tea in Europe brought about revolutions....” the words
of the German historian August Ludwig Schlozer, describes the products
which began spreading at the time.
“Valued as a stimulant to mind, body, conversation and creativity,
coffee was associated with the affluent and the leisured classes,
especially in France” (Daniel Roche, 2000). This was a time when the
lower classes could afford only gin and other spirits, as cheap grain
was easily converted to gin. Then caffeine was introduced to the working
classes too in the form of sweetened tea.
The only benefit for these less fortunate people was that tea drew
them away from gin. As the French used to say Tea saved the British from
drinking themselves to death.
We should pause for a moment to consider how much more creative man
would have been if he had not consumed all these drugs, and how much
mankind would have benefitted from such creative works, unaffected by
these chemicals that influence the brain and our thoughts.
We have to think about what a person could write or paint or compose
when he is in a very clear frame of mind, without any additional
stimulation on his mind and body, when his mind would work like that of
a true human being.
Under the influence of substances, he would be like a beast, even
though that is not the correct term to be used. Beasts do not consume
substances which make them behave like humans.
[email protected] |
