Just thinking out loud, 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 intense pressure put on children growing up in such an environment to perform, "crack the code" of their caregivers emotional chaos, and hold onto some semblance of reality and autonomous "self" might 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 become an extremely powerful asset when applied towards creative representation, modeling, emotional attunement/resonance, etc.

There are plenty of famous artists who are known to have grown up in seriously invalidating, crazy making family environments. From an early age Van Gogh experienced intense rejection and disappointment from his father, and would probably earn himself a pd diagnosis if he were to walk into a present-day clinician's office. 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, renowned for his depictions of warped, distorted human forms and whose paintings now sell in the tens of millions, had major issues with his father. The mother of Rene Magritte, an artist who certainly knew a thing or two about the importance of distinguishing reality from representation (check his famous painting "The Treachery of Images" for example), was most likely borderline. (The experience of witnessing the recovery of his mother's drowned body when he was 14 years is thought by some to echo in Magritte's paintings as a disturbing, reoccurring motif.) The painter Philip Guston witnessed his father committing suicide. Mark Rothko committed suicide. Jackson Pollock was probably suicidal. Pablo Picasso grew up idolized by his mother, suffered emotional trauma with the death of his sister when he was an adolescent, and would probably earn himself an NPD diagnosis if under consideration. There's also the painter Lucien Freud, who had a rather notorious grandfather named Sigmund. 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. Lots of interpersonal trauma, substance abuse, psychological weirdness, insanity inducing family environments and experiences.

A 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.

(A re-post, grammar and spelling mostly cleaned up, links added.. Still a ramble.)