At least since Plato some kinship of spirit has been assumed between the poet, the madman, and the seer But how could the noblest expressions of our humanity and of our greatest genius be related to the disintegration of mind? This talk presents some of my research developing the Extraordinary-Ordinary Noticing (EON) theory of personality, creativity, and religious experience. It shows how psychology may now offer a more satisfying, less pathology-oriented explanation of this definitively human relationship. 

Branden Thornhill-Miller is a lecturer in psychology at Hertford and Harris Manchester Colleges, University of Oxford.