Sometimes we need to loosen our rational control to allow ideas that normally remain hidden to emerge. Alcohol can create that sense of freedom: it lowers inhibitions, encourages unexpected associations and allows us to explore thoughts without immediately subjecting them to judgment. Perhaps that is why some people feel more creative after a few drinks. However, creativity and quality are not the same thing. The same substance that encourages ideas to emerge can weaken our ability to evaluate them. Feeling that we think better does not necessarily mean that we actually do.

The interesting question is not alcohol itself, but our relationship with control. We have learned to monitor our thoughts, correct them and constantly subject them to standards of usefulness, coherence and acceptance. Perhaps, in the process, we also censor some of our creative possibilities. Intellectual freedom requires a certain ability to temporarily suspend judgment, explore the absurd and accept thoughts without knowing where they might lead. But afterwards, we need to regain our clarity to distinguish an original idea from a passing impulse. Creating requires two seemingly opposing movements: the freedom to imagine and the discipline to think.