Synaesthesia, Creativity and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Is There a Link?

Abstract

The three way links between creativity, mental illness and synaesthesia have been rarely investigated empirically, despite anecdotal evidence and the insights into creativity such relationships may uncover. The extent to which creativity is predicted by obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and synaesthesia was explored. 210 participants completed a survey measuring the three variables. Statistically significant, moderate effect sizes were found for all pairs of scale correlations when using a proposed ‘Creative Absorption’ (CA) measure as the indication of creativity. Despite all three variables being significantly correlated with each other, and both OCD and synaesthesia being significant predictors of CA, synaesthesia and creativity displayed the strongest relationship.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [FT120100053].