Creativity & Trauma

I am preparing an article that has got me thinking about creativity and trauma.  There seems to be an assumption out there that creativity is motivated by pathology, which would imply that artists are pathological in some way.  Some artists have trauma and some don't so in a simple way that idea is challenged immediately, but I thought I might explore it a little bit further here.  I wonder if really what happens is creativity is an asset that someone brings to their recovery process.  This isn't to imply (and I wouldnt' assume) that all artists want to use their art to digest their trauma, however perhaps it may occasionally be an expressive tool for some.  Frida Kahlo comes to mind; her art was so closely linked to her trauma to the extent that she did art amidst trauma and it was clearly reflective of what happened or was happening.  There was an aggressive quality to her work as well in that her paintings weren't always pretty but were generally disturbing.  Survivors are confronted with a certain kind of darkness that one almost feels compelled to both look at and avoid simultaneously.  It seems that the work can be reflective of repetitive thoughts of traumatic events that are reported by people; artists may be doing this for themselves as well as to share with others what happened.  And sometimes I wonder if the creative product has nothing to do with what actually happened but perhaps the process of painting, writing, dancing, acting etc. is really the most important thing.  Maybe it acts as an emotional conduit and allows unspent feelings to go somewhere in order to be manageable.  The process of creating is in itself dissociative; it can feel like a departure from the here and now in order to indulge the work.  This too is likely functional (it offers a break from pain).  I suppose what I am challenging is the idea that artists are different because they are unhealthy but rather they are different because they are healthy.  The ability to be creative, I am assuming, is a resiliency factor in the process of trauma recovery as well as just in life.  It is a place for people to go during stress and is reliable in a way that sometimes people aren't.