2006-06-06 22:21:26 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Social Science ➔ Psychology
I can only think of a handful of geniuses who suffered from mental illnesses.
What mental illness did Einstein suffer from? Or Churchill? Or Lincoln? Or Michaelangelo? Or Alexander the Great?
Really, I would like to know how you came to the conclusion that all geniuses had a mental illness. Given that 10% of the population will suffer from some form of mental illness it seems to me that geniuses suffer from mental illness far less than the general population.
2006-06-06 23:14:04 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think they've all nearly had a mental illness... and how are you defining illness anyway? It obviously has to be a "functional" type of illness or otherwise the genius will not produce.
I do think that the "off-beat" perceptions that having a mental illness produces can help people break out of society's expectations and follow the ideas wherever they go.
Successful geniuses break the mold. They go where others have not gone. They face what others are too afraid to face.
Depression and angst can fuel poetry. Schizotypal-type thinking can contribute to the creation of fantastic new worlds. Anxiety forces someone to pull back and spend their time thinking and creating, rather than interacting with others or frittering away their time -- they communicate through their work.
Yes, "mental illnesses" can help fuel a genius or push them into a certain environment where they suddenly are productive, but it's not a prerequisite.
After all, when it comes to constructing an airplane that keeps me alive at 35000 feet or having touchy abdominal surgery, sensible engineers or doctors with no sort of mental whimsy seem to me to be more beneficial. :)
2006-06-07 11:39:18 · answer #2 · answered by Jennywocky 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes this is a fact most of the "genius' people have suffered from absent mindedness eg, Newton got married and forget to go to her wedding night, he instead spent it in his laboratory, and when in the morning his wife came searching for him he asked what the hell she was doin in her laboratory and asked her who she was?
Einsten always forgot where he was supposed to go,
Maybe because they use lot of thier grey matter in the brain they have little white matter or memory resposible for it
2006-06-07 05:35:37 · answer #3 · answered by ♥peacemaker♥ 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not really. Geniuses in psychology are abnormal people. How? Because they own a beyond normal intelligence. These geniuses are seen by normal, ordinary people as abnormal to make them feel inferior about their innate superiority. With this, normals can feel superior of them when in fact we normals have less.
2006-06-07 05:51:38 · answer #4 · answered by coolblueacid 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not really ... most intelligent people are just shy of a mental inllness.
2006-06-07 05:24:39 · answer #5 · answered by JaMoke 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not really. Since their brains work faster than ours do, I guess they wear out faster as well, but are you talking about psychoses or just neuroses?
2006-06-07 12:34:33 · answer #6 · answered by Caduceus89 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋