Coorelation between Insanity & Genius
By:Bardia Soltani
Table of Contents Page 3: The Science
Page 4: Past Geniuses
Page 5: Isaac Newton
Page 6: Vincent Van Gogh
Page 7: Savants
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The Science Why Are Genius And Madness Connected? Many of history’s most celebrated creative geniuses were mentally ill, from renowned artists Vincent van Gogh and Frida Kahlo to literary giants Virginia Woolf and Edgar Allan Poe. Today, the fabled connection between genius and madness is no longer merely anecdotal. Mounting research shows these two extremes of the human mind really are linked — and scientists are beginning to understand why. A panel of experts discussed recent and ongoing research on the subject at an event held Thursday (May 31) in New York as part of the 5th annual World Science Festival. All three panelists suffer from mental illnesses themselves. Kay Redfield Jamison, a clinical psychologist and professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said the findings of some 20 or 30 scientific studies endorse the notion of the “tortured genius.” Of the many varieties of psychosis, creativity appears to be most strongly linked to mood disorders, and especially bipolar disorder, which Jamison suffers from herself. For example, one study tested the intelligence of 700,000 Swedish 16-year-olds and then followed up a decade later to learn which of them had developed mental illnesses. The startling results were published in 2010. “They found that people who excelled when they were 16 years old were four times as likely to go on to develop bipolar disorder,” she said. Read More: http://bit.ly/LVIh27
“No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness” -Aristotle
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Past Geniuses Abraham Lincoln: Depression
The Great Emancipator managed to lead the country through one of its more trying times, despite suffering from severe depression most of his life. According to one Lincoln biographer, letters left by the president’s friends referred to him as “the most depressed person they’ve ever seen.” On at least one occasion, he was so overcome with “melancholy” that he collapsed. Both his mother and numerous members of his father’s family exhibited similar symptoms of severe depression, indicating he was probably biologically susceptible to the illness. Read More: bit.ly/X708vL
Ludwig Von Beethoven: Bipolar
When the composer died of liver failure in 1827, he had been self-medicating his many health problems with alcohol for decades. Sadly, much of what he may have suffered from probably could have been managed with today’s medications, including a serious case of bipolar disorder. Beethoven’s fits of mania were well known in his circle of friends, and when he was on a high he could compose numerous works at once. It was during his down periods that many of his most celebrated works were written. Sadly, that was also when he contemplated suicide, as he told his brothers in letters throughout his life. Read More: bit.ly/X708vL
Michelangelo: Autism
You might have wondered in the past just how someone could paint something as huge as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. According to a paper published in the Journal of Medical Biography in 2004, Michelangelo’s single-minded routine may have been due to the disorder. According to descriptions by his contemporaries, the painter was “preoccupied with his own reality.” Most of the male members of his family are recorded to have exhibited similar symptoms. Michelangelo also seems to have had difficulty forming relationships with people; he had few friends and didn’t even attend his brother’s funeral. Read More: bit.ly/X708vL
Charles Darwin: Agoraphobia
Scholars still debate just exactly what problems Darwin suffered from, but whatever they were, they were serious. Despite his famed five year voyage on the Beagle (and the publication it led to) making his career, Darwin was virtually incapacitated the entire time. While he concentrated on his physical symptoms as the cause of all his suffering, the constant trembling, nausea, hysterical crying, and visual hallucinations (among other things) seem to have been mostly caused by a severe case of agoraphobia that kept him virtually bedridden from the time he turned thirty. Read More: bit.ly/X708vL
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Isaac Newton Balancing Newton’s mind: his singular behaviour and his madness of 1692–93 Newton grew up with a vulnerable and eccentric character besides having a low self-esteem, and he was someone who only uncommonly developed any close relationships. On review it is argued that his distrust and suspicions of others, and the fear that he might be harmed by criticism and his discoveries stolen, followed from his mother’s separation from him in childhood and not, as has been claimed, from the developmental disorder of Asperger’s syndrome. It is further firmly argued that his ‘madness’ of 1692 and 1693 was due to mercury poisoning from his alchemical experiments and not to clinical depression. Isaac Newton Asperger’s syndrome child rejection mercury poisoning In writing historical biography there can be an argumentative disadvantage in discussing a diagnosis not based on adequate medical grounds. In 1822 the French mathematical physicist Jean-Baptiste Biot (1774–1862), writing for the Biographie universelle,1 was the first to point out Isaac Newton’s period of dérangement d’esprit when he alleged that Newton had fallen into a frénésie—that is, he Read More: bit.ly/17DsV47
Invented Calculus Stated Laws of Gravitation Father of Physics Failed Alchemist
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Vincent Van Gogh Van Gogh’s Mental and Physical Health Hundreds of physicians and psychiatrists have tried to define Van Gogh’s medical conditions over the years. The following are some of the more probable mental and physical diagnoses. Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Van Gogh suffered from seizures which doctors, including Dr. Felix Rey and Dr. Peyron, believed to be caused by temporal lobe epilepsy. Van Gogh was born with a brain lesion that many doctors believe was aggravated by his prolonged use of absinthe causing his epileptic condition. Dr. Gachet, another of Van Gogh’s physicians, was thought to have treated his epilepsy with digitalis. This prescription drug can cause one to see in yellow or see yellow spots. This may have been one of the reasons why Van Gogh loved this color. Bipolar disorder Due to Van Gogh’s extreme enthusiasm and dedication to first religion and then art coupled with the feverish pace of his art production many believe that mania was a prominent condition in Van Gogh’s life. However, these episodes were always followed by exhaustion and depression and ultiRead More: http://bit.ly/bDvaeN
World Famous Artist Created over 900 Paintings Sold 1 Painting Duing life Commited Suicide at age 37
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Savants The savant syndrome: an extraordinary condition Savant syndrome is a rare, but extraordinary, condition in which persons with serious mental disabilities, including autistic disorder, have some ‘island of genius’ which stands in marked, incongruous contrast to overall handicap. As many as one in 10 persons with autistic disorder have such remarkable abilities in varying degrees, although savant syndrome occurs in other developmental disabilities or in other types of central nervous system injury or disease as well. Whatever the particular savant skill, it is always linked to massive memory. This paper presents a brief review of the phenomenology of savant skills, the history of the concept and implications Read More: http://bit.ly/17QwQJU
25 Amazing Savants Savants, those legendary masters of mental mayhem. They are blessed with an oasis of talent in a desert of disability and ineptitude. Although they could probably tell you how many thread are in their shoelaces, tying them together would be an almost impossible task. Although savant syndrome is not an officially recognized medical disorder it is perhaps one of the least understood and scientists are still trying to figure out what is going on in the minds of the these amazing savants. Read More: http://bit.ly/18WjSVD
Kim Peek, The Real Rain Man Kim Peek, who lent inspiration to the fictional character Raymond Babbitt—played by Dustin Hoffman—in the movie Rain Man, was a remarkable savant. A savant is an individual who—with little or no apparent effort—completes intellectual tasks that would be impossible for ordinary people to master. Kim Peek’s special abilities started early, around the age of a year and a half. He could read both pages of an open book at once, one page with one eye and the other with the other eye. This style of reading continued until his dead in 2009. His reading comprehension was impressive. He would retain 98 percent of the information he read. Since he spent most of his days in the library with his dad, he quickly made it through thousands of books, encyclopedia and maps. He could read a thick book in an hour and remember just about anything in it. Because he could quickly absorb loads of information and recall it when necessary, his condition made him a living encyclopedia and a walking GPS. Read More: http://bit.ly/ZcrtQi
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