From the passion of Hemingway and Bukowski to drink like Van Gogh’s love for absinthe and Andy Warhol’s penchant for drugsentrenched in the mass consciousness the idea that substances and alcohol inspires great art, it turns out error.

This is probably a big myth, scientists say, arguing that drugs and alcohol do not promote creativity. On the contrary, travel, culture, meditation, exercise are more effective in this area.

“They don’t do anything for creativity. People get no benefit from them – absolutely no effect, ”says the doctor. Paul Heinel from the Department of Psychology at the University of Essex.

“What we hear in the media is about people boosting their creativity with drugs. But what we don’t hear is cases where those who used drugs passed out and their creativity was less,” he notes.

Researchers from the Universities of Essex and Humboldt University in Berlin looked at hundreds of studies to come to this conclusion. A scientific article published after their own research finds that people who took psilocybin (ss a naturally occurring psychotropic substance, mainly from mushroom species), felt more creative while intoxicated, but actually performed less well than when sober.

“Ideas born under the influence of substances often later seem incoherent or unsuitable for solution. Given the many side effects associated with drug use, it is scientifically unsafe to recommend their use in the pursuit of creativity,” says Jennifer Haase, one of the study’s authors.

However, Heinel acknowledged that under certain conditionsmaybe some drugs enhance creativity. He himself cites the case when someone uses hallucinogenssee the vision and be inspired by it.

The results of this study seem retroactively demolish artists, writers, journalists, performers who have publicly admitted that some of their “children” were the result of creativity under the influence of psychoactive substances.

However, according to Rona Crane, an associate professor of literature at the University of Birmingham who studies drug-related writers and poets, this romanticized view of dependent creators stems from the socially conservative post-war culture and is increasingly becoming a thing of the past..

“The counterculture of the 1960s, and its predecessor in the 1950s, was the culture of drinking and drug use,” when artists spent time in New York City bars, parties, and clubs where they socialized, shared ideas, made deals, and “created.” partnerships,” she says, but adds that all of this effectively hides addiction problems, crime, premature death, and a culture of alienation for many people.

Source: Guardian