Craziness: Structural Similarities in Three Types of Nonconformity

Robert R. Holt has suggested that there are three principal types of nonconformity: criminal, psychotic, and creative (Janis et al. 1969). Each type of nonconformity can be distinguished by its social consequences; yet in some cases the three types of nonconformity can be interrelated. Holt cites, for example, Raskolnikov, the protagonist of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment-a psychotic who committed a crime that he thought was an act of creative nonconformity. Holt's observation raises an interesting question: Are the three types of nonconformity only superficially similar, or are the underlying personality dynamics for each the same? Is there a common deep structure for deviance, a g factor for nonconformity? Although I had heard arguments about the parallels between creativity and psychoticism and between creativity and delinquency, I had never taken these arguments seriously. First of all, each of these phenomena-criminality, creativity, and craziness-constitutes a broad behavioral category that can be further divided into distinguishable subcategories. Second, each subcategory undoubtedly can be shaped by any of a number of predisposing influences. Despite this complexity, a general deviance factor may still influence all these types of nonconformity. This chapter describes my search for this general deviance factor. The chapter is divided into two major sections. The first reviews the literature linking the three types of deviance. The second discusses deviance within a sociobiological framework and then describes my own theoretical and psychometric studies of nonconformity.