Can a higher I.Q. level lead to insanity?

Question

I've often heard that a high I.Q. level can cause a person to experience extreme mood disorders, or possibly cause insanity at certain periods of time. I think the average I.Q. level is slightly above 100. I can understand why having so much knowledge about things might cause a person to experience depression. Are there any studies that indicate that a person with extreme intelligence can go crazy?

I ask this question because some of the most intelligent people seem to be literally insane at times. Albert Einstein and Howard Hughes were extremely intelligent, but many people thought they were insane because they kept themselves hidden from the public. They were not very social, and they had wild mood swings. Is this typical for highly intelligent people?

Answer 1

It can, because highly intelligent people are often perceptive of things that other people are not|

They can see much that is disfigured, ugly, or dishonest in their environment that others might not notice|


The human soul and psyche are meant to subsist on the good, the true, the beautiful, so that if it is confronted with the false, the ugly, and the evil, it can have an overloading and unbalancing effect on the mind|

I think that commonly diagnosed so-called mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and manic-depression are not caused by a "chemical imbalance" but is the result of a psyche that has shattered under the most extreme stress|

A proper loving therapy can put it together again, but often when they are sent for psychiatric treatment they are only further brutalized, making them more dependent upon pills and other "therapy." (You cannot treat a human being like a machine, because a human being is not one - which is the premise behind psychiatry - to do so is an insidious form of disrespect for his or her human dignity, which can only make the problem worse)|


And there is nothing wrong with being alone a lot if you need it and want it - even though society stigmatizes those who do so with subtle and snide insults|




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Answer 2

The higher your IQ, the fewer peers you have; if you have an above average IQ, you will understand what I mean. There are always those social situations where you feel out of place, like the people you are talking to just don't understand you.

This leads to a higher level of introvertion, till you end up compensating for those social connections with made up ones.

Answer 3

Insanity? Genius' have always been known to be 'how-you-say' ...Eccentric? But to claim they are destined to be insane? I would not agree. Yes, Yes, the proper word for a genius' way of acting is eccentric. The reality of genius' is that it's not the public that fears them but that the genuis perspective does not fit into the society. Insanity is similiar to eccentricity, as it is an altered state of mind, but unlike eccentricity, insanity does not follow common logical functions. For example, I'll use the fiction character of Sherlock Holmes. (I just watched the movie.) Sherlock Holmes is a highly intelligent fellow and perhaps even a genius. His mind though, is on a constant thirst of solving things and discovery. He is not insane, but eccentric. Socially, for short periods of time, he can be entertaining, but he dislikes simply being with people over working on cases. In short, he only has one good friend (Watson.) who understands his eccentricity and the only love interest in his life is a criminal who escaped from him multiple times on her own wit. So the different ways of thinking can look like insanity, it is really just social boredom or awkwardness that the intelligent person dislikes.

Answer 4

There is this "glamorization of madness."
There are "no famously sane poets," writes the British psychoanalyst
Adam Phillips. He might have added that there are no famously sane
mathematicians, few notoriously even-keeled guitarists. On the stage
of our cultural history, "the sane don't have any memorable lines."
So begins "Going Sane," Phillips's unraveling of sanity. This book,
like previous ones such as "On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored,"
brings his original and accessible readings of psychoanalytic thought
to bear on some unexamined phrases of daily life. Historically, he
argues, sanity has been consigned to one of two fates: it's either
been ignored because it's not dramatic enough (Hamlet gets all the
good lines), or it's been written off by cultural critics (in a mad
world, grumble malcontents from Rousseau to Foucault, only the crazy
are authentic). Some of his categorical claims are inflated. Richard
Ford's Frank Bascombe and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, for
example, spring to mind as imaginatively sane literary characters.
Nevertheless, his broad story of sanity's humble position in a
madness-crazed culture is persuasive. We have detailed iconographies
of insanity, but few compelling definitions of sanity.

Answer 5

Hi IQ in itself cannot lead to insanity. Nor can it in itself lead to mood disorders. However People who are high on the intelligence scale do tend to have a lot of pressure put on them. This can lead to life imbalances.

Answer 6

Albert Einstein , Great scientist but what happened to him , he was so smart that he didnt care aboout his looks and how people saw him , I got a picture of him like lecturing, having trouble with his hair and playing a yoyo......Yes some smart people can get insane

Answer 7

Anyone can suffer from mental illness, but yes ignorance is often bliss. A high IQ does not necessarily assure success in life. More important is a person's emotional maturity and common sense.

Answer 8

i dont think so because someone who is truly smart will actually be, well, smart.