Posted on 06/04/2012 6:33:40 AM PDT by C19fan
There IS a link between creative genius and madness - with both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder frequent in highly creative and intelligent people. The idea was investigated by a panel of scientists who had all suffered some form of mental disorder. Kay Redfield Jamison of John Hopkins school of Medicine, who suffers from bipolar disorder, said that intelligence tests on Swedish 16-year-olds had shown that highly intelligent children were most likely to go on to develop the disorder.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I call Bullsh!t.
It was a bunch of intellectual liberals who did the study.
Sorry, I don’t get it. Sounds like a reasonable idea. Smarter kids are more prone to psychological issues. What are you calling BS on?
Nikola Tesla was probably the greatest inventor the world has ever known and completely nuts. I suppose you could consider Howard Hughes to be a genius as well.
I’d like to see a study on the link between intelligence and aspergers, which is now said NOT to be linked to autism
(Autism has language issues and aspergers does not)
John Nash is another example of a nutty genius.
Anything your biology does it does at the cost of what else it could be doing.
Genes that could contribute to high intelligence could also contribute to mental insanity, autism, or any number of other negative things.
If there was no “cost” to a gene that unambiguously made people more intelligent - it would rapidly reach 100% penetrance in human populations.
As it is generally assumed that there is an unequal distribution of intelligence genes in human populations - it seems obvious that higher intelligence comes at a cost that would counteract the tendency for such a gene to reach 100% penetrance in human populations.
Certainly not all highly intelligent people are crazy, but it may be higher concentration there.
Einstein wasn’t crazy. Edison was a jerk, but not crazy. Da Vinci was mentally sound.... So was Newton, Hawkings, Bohr, Aristotle, Shakespeare, Mozart...
I would think art/creative people would be most prone to issues. Some of the issues may be the cause for being interpreted as being so creative, due to their very different way of thinking.
Why haven’t murderers reached 100% penetrance of the human population?
Most people who are not genius do consider highly intelligent individuals to be strange, insane, or a little weird.
Very smart people tend to be different and very independent. They do not fall into a cookie cutter idea of a normal person. That’s not a bad thing but it does color the view of the average Joe.
Do you think there is a “murder” gene? Or genes that make people prone to violence?
As far as being prone to violence I would say there is no human population that hasn’t demonstrated this tendency.
Some have, historically, been better at it than others; but the tendency to violence, and organized violence - is a human universal.
Do you think people who kill people against the laws and customs of their people tended to have higher or lower reproductive success? Usually the penalty for such is death, exile, or imprisonment - all three which tend to curtail reproductive activity.
Leave Obama alone. He’s halfway to being an idiot savant.
Uuum no.. these people who are genius are many times suffering mental illness. John Nash (A Beautiful Mind) among other other posters have mentioned.
Science is now showing people who have murdered people or have very violent outburst tend to not have a certain part of the brain working that produces a chemicals inhibiting such violence as normal people have.
Not letting these people off the hook..they should be in jail but one day medical science will be able to diagnose, then cure through an operation or drugs this inactive chemical condition before they do kill somebody.
>>There IS a link between creative genius and madness - with both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder frequent in highly creative and intelligent people.<
Every highly intelligent person I have ever met was bipolar ... living in a world of continuous deep thought and high imagination while at the same time attempting to slow down enough to fit into the common world of insane laws and rules forced upon society by incompetent bureaucrats and managers who long since should have retired or been fired.
The reason genius often leads to madness is because it’s maddening living in a world run by people stupider than you.
As a nurse and an EMT I’ve dealt with a fair number of patients with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
I’ve seen a few smart people, but no one who impressed me as brilliant. Schizophrenia usually leads to a poverty of thought, so if you met someone who was schizophrenic they would not likely appear very intelligent, but they might have before the disease began. I’ve seen more people with diagnosed developmental disabilities.
It is true that intelligent people are more likely to be able to manage their illness, and stay out of the hospital. Some of the medications are sedating, dulling, even stupefying. It’s one reason why people stop taking them.
-—Do you think there is a “murder” gene? Or genes that make people prone to violence?
Not anymore than I think there’s an intelligence gene. Intelligence is hard to define.
Intelligence IS hard to define and different people have various types of intelligence - but there is certainly a degree of intelligence that is heritable - and thus based upon genetics.
So why would you presume that if there WAS a “murderer gene” that it would lead to disproportionate reproductive success?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.