Thursday, 4 February 2010

You Don't Have To Be Mad To Be A Genius - But It Helps!

In the final chapter of NOT A CHIMP I deal with research in the recent past that has linked genius with bipolar disorder (manic depression) and schizophrenia. The idea is that these disorders are over-represented among famous artists, writers, poets and composers. The work has always been more than a little suspect because it has relied on what has been recorded, historically, about individuals and has pre-selected a target population. Now my friend Jeremy Laurance, in The Independent, reports on a huge study of this proposed relationship but this time in the general population. The study examined 700,000 Swedish individuals and found that those who scored the highest scholastic grades were over 4 times more likely to be diagnosed with some degree of bipolar illness. The relationship was strongest among those studying music and literature. So, genius does really appear to be close to madness.

1 comment:

  1. Work at home jobs can be hard to trust. That's why we research and publish only the best of the best... carefully pre-screened, 100% scam-free work at home jobs you can depend on. No get rich quick schemes. No scams. Just 100% real work at home jobs
    www.onlineuniversalwork.com

    ReplyDelete