Where is the Line Between Extreme Intelligence and Madness?

[Spectral]

OP if your question is in reference to yourself, I am going to have to chuckle a bit.

Oh, shit, that hadn't even occurred to me. People sure do have some fanciful ideas....

[Celista]

i guess that makes me part of the 3%.

I thought you had ADHD. How many disorders do you have, lol.

[breadisfunny]

I thought you had ADHD. How many disorders do you have, lol.

i have adhd autism and moderate ocd. i also have epilepsy. my mother did drugs and smoked when she was pregnant.

[Celista]

No, it is not in reference to myself. It's just that the mentally troubled genius theme has occurred throughout history many times.

There's a book that discusses the link between bipolar disorder and creative "genius" as it so subjectively describes it, it was optional reading for one of my undergraduate courses.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ie=UTF8&btkr=1

[Breccia]

This quote leaps to mind.

[Celista]

i have adhd autism and moderate ocd. i also have epilepsy. my mother did drugs when she was pregnant.

That makes me sad. Personally I feel that mothers who drink and do drugs while knowingly pregnant should be held liable for the damage they do to their unborn fetus if they decide not to abort, but that's just me.

[Palinn]

I don't think madness has anything to do with intelligence. You can be mad and intelligent, or mad and stupid. The idea that some really intelligent people had odd behavior isn't really shocking - some really stupid people act extremely normal.

[Spectral]

i have adhd autism and moderate ocd. i also have epilepsy. my mother did drugs and smoked when she was pregnant.

Dang bread. Didn't know that. Tip of the cap from a fellow Sconnie, hope the best for you.

[spinner981]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/scie...ists-find.html

It looks like this article is more relating creativity to psychosis/depression, not genius to insanity.

[God8010]

When you'll use what you think to excuse harming someone you've crossed the line.

Second note, if you were a genius you'd know how much you're incapable of knowing due to the scope of human life. What we know accounts for maybe a line in a pie chart, surly not even a slice.

[May90]

Why do you think a very high level of intelligence should cause madness or be madness? While it is true that a lot of highly intelligent people are weird and crazy a bit, I think it has more to do with them spending more time doing something in science, poetry, etc. and less time socializing with people, so when they do socialize, due to the lack of experience they don't do it very well, in extreme cases looking outright like madmen. Mathematician Perelman is a good example of that.

[breadisfunny]

That makes me sad. Personally I feel that mothers who drink and do drugs while knowingly pregnant should be held liable for the damage they do to their unborn fetus if they decide not to abort, but that's just me.

she gave me up for adoption. i don't know her personally.

[Hotmail]

I've always seen high video game skill as a fine example of the tipover point.

Seeking to be good at, say, WoW PvP is at least partly madness: Arenas are designed with piles of RNG and a 50% winrate philosophy in mind. However, this madness becomes extreme intelligence when the skill is so advanced that it can be turned into profits (Stream revenue, Tournament prizes, Coaching etc).

Guillaume Patry's madness became extreme intelligence when he consistently managed to outplay professional Korean players in Starcraft: Brood War. Who would have thought that flying to Seoul for a career in pixel-smashing (back in the 2000s, no less) would be worthwhile?

So, all in all I think that it becomes genius when someone is willing to fork over money for doing whatever it is you like to do.

[Venant]

Everyone thought Donald Trump was a madman

[Celista]

Everyone thought Donald Trump was a madman

I think you meant to type "moron". :/

[spinner981]

I think you meant to type "moron". :/

To be fair, both words get tossed around towards a lot of the same people for the same reasons usually. It's like 50% of all negative words in the english language mean the same thing to 50% of the population.

[Zenotetsuken]

Hmm, the line between madness and extreme intelligence...
I would say that if you arrange the peas on your plate in relation to their gravitational pull from different planets in the solar system, you have probably gone a little too far.
However, if you believe that the Earth is flat, Global Warming doesn't exist, and that Vaccinations cause Autism... You haven't gone nearly far enough.

[Deleted]

Madness is sort of an instability of mind, while intelligence is basically processing power -- and sometimes subconscious.

But the finer the machine, the easier it gets broken; same might apply to a highly sophisticated mind. Many superintelligent people do seem to often have all sorts of mental abnormalities (asperger, bipolar etc.). Maybe biology is trading off stability in return of processing power?

Intelligent people might also get depressed because of the relative stupidity of the surrounding people.

[Independent voter]

Dostoyevsky is the only person I know who's a genius. How do I know him? He was an author who wrote books and from his stories and characterizations you can get to know someone at least a little. Apparently Dostoyevsky had many friends and was well adjusted.

[chazus]

I feel like these things aren't exactly comparable.

Intelligence is a measurable thing in a number of various ways.

'Madness' is simply a societal impression. It has very little measurable value.

For the record, 'mental illness' is not interchangeable with 'madness' for the most part. You can't say someone had autism and immediately put it on a number spectrum with intelligence. "Madness" is a very, very, very vague statement, and largely just a trope term.