> The most important process underlying strokes of creative genius is cognitive disinhibition—the tendency to pay attention to things that normally should be ignored or filtered out by attention because they appear irrelevant.1 Cognitive disinhibition is correlated w/ psychopathology > Exceptional ‘‘‘intelligence alone yields ‘‘‘useful but unoriginal and unsurprising ideas. > the creative geniuses enjoy the asset of superior general intelligence. This intelligence introduces the necessary ‘‘‘cognitive control ‘‘‘that enables the person to separate the wheat from the chaff. > ertain events […] in childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood enhance a person’s creative potential. These diversifying experiences include multicultural exposure, bilingualism, and various forms of developmental adversity, such as parental loss, economic hardship, and minority status. Creative geniuses who grew up in such environments will actually be less likely to display traits or symptoms of psychopathology!