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The Link Between Genius and Insanity
An anonymous reader writes in a story about the link between certain mental illnesses and high intelligence. "Genius and insanity may actually go together, according to scientists who found that mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are often found in highly creative and intelligent people. The link is being investigated by a group of scientists who had all suffered some form of mental disorder. Bipolar sufferer Kay Redfield Jamison, a clinical psychologist and professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said that findings of some 20 or 30 scientific studies confirms the idea of the 'tortured genius' or 'mad scientist.'"
Compared to 1960 test results for IQ, slightly-above-average intelligences from today would be considered genius. IQ shifted almost a full standard deviation upward between 1960 and 1990.
This is the Flynn Effect. But it is much more obvious and less controversial on a longer timescale - we are all geniuses compared to our single-celled ancestors.
Many people who *aren't* prodigies display self-destructive behaviors *all the time*.
Quote from the article
people who excelled when they were 16 years old were four times as likely to go on to develop bipolar disorder
The story here is that people who are gifted are more likely to be cursed with bipolar disorder, depression, or schizophrenia. No one is saying the reverse is true, that people who are bipolar or depressed are more likely to be gifted.
There seem to be multiple causes of bipolar and schizophrenia. Perhaps some combination of genetics may predispose one to genius and also increases the likelihood of a disorder. That doesn't mean ALL the causes of disorder will have increased creativity or intelligence too, in fact they probably don't.
Other examples:
* Nikola Tesla (OCD and more)
* Glenn Gould (one of the greatest 20th century classical pianists; maybe autistic, definitely eccentric)
* Paul Erdos (20th century mathematician, also eccentric, referred to children as "epsilons", which is hilarious)
* Alexander Grothendieck (20th century mathematician; he's probably a hermit in the Pyrenees right now; Grothendieck is basically the definition of the reclusive genius)
* Grisha Perelman (mathematician of Poincare conjecture fame; also withdrawn)
Mod parent up - great post.
The supposed connection between genius and insanity appeals to two irrational modes of thinking:
(1) The Just World Fallacy.
(2) The availability heuristic.
Briefly, these are:
(1) The world isn't fair - being a genius doesn't automatically mean you have compensating disadvantages. It's quite nice actually!
(2) Just because you can think of some famous people who are eccentric geniuses, this does not imply an actual correlation. Famous crazy people are just easy to remember.