Creativity & Bipolar Disorder, Bipolar Disorder & Childhood Trauma, Childhood Trauma & Multiple Personality, Multiple Personality & Creativity

In the perennial discussion of creativity and mental illness, one of the most popular mental illnesses is bipolar disorder, and one common example is Ernest Hemingway. So where do I get the nerve to suggest, as I have in past posts, that Hemingway may have also had multiple personality, and that his creativity may have been more related to multiple personality than bipolar?

This post is not about Hemingway, but about, first, why a person might have both bipolar disorder and multiple personality, and, second, why the latter may be more relevant to their creativity.

The fact is, both bipolar disorder and multiple personality correlate with a history of childhood trauma. This is common knowledge in regard to multiple personality, but not as widely known about bipolar disorder, so let me provide links to two studies which report that correlation:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24229750

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25597794

I am not saying that childhood trauma is the one and only cause of either bipolar disorder or multiple personality. All I am saying is that childhood trauma makes both conditions more likely. And when people point to the bipolar disorder of Hemingway, they almost always neglect his multiple personality.

As to creativity, I refer you to my many past posts about the multiple personality of great novelists, and how it is an integral part of their creative process.