Do you know any genius in your neighborhood who is self destructive or a ‘mad man’ in your street who sometmes makes insightful statements? Worry no more…in them may lie the wisdom of the gods, at least, according to study.
A theory known as ‘Biosocial Theory of Creativity,’ maintained that creativity is a modified form of madness which is benign.
Jamison who herself suffers from bipolar disorder, said that intelligence tests on Swedish 16-year-old teenagers had shown that highly intelligent children were most likely to go on to develop the disorder. Previous research has hinted that much of the 'link' is created by one particular gene, known as DARPP-32, which links genius with madness.
The word genius stemmed from the old belief that men of genius had a guardian spirit or daemon (genio) which whispered in their ear.
In the holy books, a Babylonian genius, Daniel, who was the best among his scholarly peers, was described as having the “Spirit of the gods,” with rare abilities to interpret dreams, break riddles and solve difficult problems.
Some 19th century psychologists, after examining the claim that Socrates had such a 'daemon', revealed that Socrates had suffered from auditory hallucinations, hence he was mad.
Painter Van Gogh and author Jack Kerouac were both hailed as geniuses but displayed self-destructive behaviour.
Also Nikola Tesla, a brilliant inventor whose inventions rivalled that of Edison, claimed to be in communication with other planets, to have invented “death rays” and suffered from bizarre compulsions. Tesla reportedly uses his body as a conductor in his electrical experiments.
More recently, Dr. John Nash, a professor of Mathematical Economics at Princeton University, who won the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics for his contributions in the modern game theory – a theory that gives insight into the forces that govern “Time and Chance” in life, suffered from a paranoid schizophrenia for a long time.
Grigory Perelman, a Russian mathematical genius, who rejected a Fields Medal prize (Nobel equivalent in mathematics) along with another one million-dollar prize from the Clay Mathematical Institute for solving the Poincare Conjecture, is believed to be suffereing from Asperger’s syndrome.
Genius and madness have much in common but there are also important differences between them. Salvador Dali, a highly creative artist and painter, said: “There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know that I am mad”.
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