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mental disorders in the same proportion as the general population while the latter group are affected significantly more.
This was explained away by another theory that purports to establish creativity (or art) and genius as not the same thing. If one accepts this basic premise, one can build an edifice to support a semi- unified vision of the world's greatest people and what made tick.

One can elaborate on the theory as follows:
Genius is when one is able to discern order and harmony from seeming randomness and chaos. Consider Einstein, Galileo, Maxwell, Newton, Hawking etc. Most people would not object to them being grouped under 'genius', but 'a label of 'creative' might cause some to pause and think.
Art is when one is able to identify chaos and contradictions from seeming harmony and order. Consider people like Van Gogh, Shakespeare, Herman Hesse, Salman Rushdie, John Lennon, Picasso, Satyajit Ray, Pink Floyd, Douglas Adams, Martin Scorsese, even Prakash Mehra...they had things to say about the internal conflicts and contradictions of human nature and the world in general. One can carry this train of thought just a little bit further and theorize that they could do this because they probably opened up the window to their own souls by a deeper introspection process - a process that went much beyond that which the average human being or the 'general population' is prone to undertake. As a consequence of this self-awareness, they could highlight the human condition in sharper perspective, thus achieving 'creativity' or 'art'.
On a personal note, this is why Ayn Rand fell from the pedestal I had erected for her in my younger, more impressionable days. She chose not to focus on the inherent contradictions in her own work, so she changed, in my eyes, from an arty genius to simply a writer of pulp fiction. If, on the other hand, she did not 'choose' to ignore the contradictions, but was simply unaware that the contradictions existed, then it is I who erred and it is I that should not have put her up on the pedestal in the first place.
Until now, our path to classifying genius and creative people has been easy, not beset on all sides by the inequities of the wicked and the tyranny of evil, to borrow from Jules of Pulp Fiction, who borrowed from the Bible. We can neatly say that genius seeks order while art seeks conflict.
Now, we get into murkier waters, where the tyranny of evil might jump on our wise asses at any time, where subjectivity and the art of wielding

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