Cultural cures for the disconnected mind

The current article advances the hypothesis that creative culture evolved, in part, to allay the costs of the overgrown human brain and the cognitive integration limit that it imposes. Specific features can be expected among cultural elements best suited to allaying the integration limit and also among the neurocognitive mechanisms that might undergird these cultural effects. Music, visual art, and meditation are used as examples to illustrate how culture helps to bridge or sidestep the integration limit. Tiered religious, philosophical, and psychological concepts are considered in light of their reflection of the tiered process of cognitive integration. The link between creativity and mental illness is offered as additional support for the role of cognitive disconnection as a wellspring of cultural creativity, and I propose that this link can be harnessed in defense of neurodiversity. Developmental and evolutionary implications of the integration limit are discussed.