“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this:

A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.

To him… a touch is a blow,
a sound is a noise,
a misfortune is a tragedy,
a joy is an ecstasy,
a friend is a lover,
a lover is a god,
and failure is death.

Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create – - – so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.”

Pearl S. Buck, (1892-1973), recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938

Possible theoretical underpinnings, from wikipedia’s page on Positive Disintegration.

Unlike mainstream psychology, Dąbrowski’s theoretical framework views psychological tension and anxiety as necessary for growth. These “disintegrative” processes are therefore seen as “positive,” whereas people who fail to go through positive disintegration may remain for their entire lives in a state of “primary integration.” Advancing into disintegration and into the higher levels of development is predicated on having developmental potential, including overexcitabilities and above-average reactions to stimuli.

Trippy.