>>Even for the work I do, sitting down with colleages or clients (that is pretty rare as most of my colleages and clients do not live in The Netherlands) with a couple of beers always created moments of new insights and ideas. That while I usually only drink very few drinks a week. Again not advocating to get drunk, but I believe mike is spot on when he says that alcohol boosts creativity. However, when you are plastered..... eh, never mind.
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>>http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/choke/201204/alcohol-benefits-the-creative-process
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>While the general stuff in the article may be correct (i.e. the loosening effect and more freely associating in one's mind when some of the usual constraints are by alcohol (does that make them a tincture?)), the example in the experiment looks all wrong to me. The purely combinatory problem of finding the fourth word related to each of the given three requires as much creativity as that of finding the bolt matching the three given screws.

I think it more like looking at a problem without being locked in so much with your fixed state of mind (as we all have to some degree) when you are sober. Looking at problems from different perspective (rather than your usual ones formed under decades of preferences and experiences) gets easier when some of the usual blockages are torn down under the effect of alcohol or drugs. Its just that the alcohol cuts down some of the tree preventing you to see the forest.