Just a thought, pardon the ramble...

Growing up in a family with axis II cluster B pathology (thinking less antisocial, more borderline, narcissistic) creates all sorts of reality warping dynamics that are somewhat more subtle than in a family system ruled by schizophrenic psychosis. Assuming that the pathology is passed on intergenerationally primarily via behavior dynamics and less so genetically (a big assumption), the pressure put on children growing up in such an environment to "crack the code" of their caregivers emotional chaos and hold onto some semblance of reality and "self" could possibly result in a particular type of creative problem solving that once carried out of childhood and no longer useful in regards to base psychological/emotional survival could be extremely powerful when applied towards creative problem solving in the arts, sciences, etc. There are plenty of famous artists who are known to have grown up in seriously invalidating, crazy making family environments. Van Gogh himself had serious rejection issues with his father from an early age, and would probably earn himself a pd diagnosis if he were to walk into a present-day clinician's office. The mother of Rene Magritte, an artist who certainly knew a thing or two about the importance of distinguishing reality versus representation (check his famous painting "The Treachery of Images" for example), was most likely borderline. Franz Kafka's famous "Letter to His Father", and short story "The Judgment" depict the deep anguish of growing up with an absurdly rejecting/invalidating father. The British painter Francis Bacon, who was considered rather talented at depicting warped, distorted human forms and whose paintings now sell in the tens of millions, had major issues with his father and family as well. Pablo Picasso was notorious for his "splitting" behavior (read about how he treated women, his family and friends), and would probably earn himself an NPD diagnosis if under consideration. There are many, many, more examples to be found, and not just with painters or authors. Check out the lives of famous composers, poets, sculpters, even filmmakers. Super interesting topic. Makes me think of Bateson's double bind and the creative thinking necessary to emancipate one's self from an excruciating, maddening dilemma.