4 ms·

I wonder what would happen to creativity and innovation if you got rid of schizophrenia and bipolar by killing this virus as it attacks an infant. Two of the pe

I wonder what would happen to creativity and innovation if you got rid of schizophrenia and bipolar by killing this virus as it attacks an infant. Two of the people mentioned, John Nash and Jack Kerouac, were brilliant I think in part because of their illness. I don't know the answer to the question, but it's an interesting thing to consider.

hugh3 16y ago
I don't know much about Kerouac, but from reading his biography I don't get the impression that Nash was brilliant because of his illness. He was brilliant in spite of his illness, or more accurately I think he was brilliant before his illness really started hitting him and he was never really the same again afterwards. Schizophrenia has destroyed a lot of promising young minds, and I'm not convinced that it has created any.
- adammichaelc 16y ago
  That doesn't sound right. From what I've read, people with mental illness and those who are highly creative may get the trait (creativity on the one hand and mental illness on the other) from the same source.[1] From a study on the subject: Daniel Nettle, a psychologist at Newcastle University, and Helen Clegg, at the Open University in Milton Keynes, carried out the survey. On analysing 425 responses, the psychologists found that artists and schizophrenics scored equally high on unusual cognition, a trait which gives rise to a greater tendency to feel in between reality and a dream state, or to feel overwhelmed by one’s own thoughts. [1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/nov/30/psychology.highereducation http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/nov/30/psychology.hig...
  - hugh3 16y ago
    the psychologists found that artists and schizophrenics scored equally high on unusual cognition, a trait which gives rise to a greater tendency to feel in between reality and a dream state, or to feel overwhelmed by one’s own thoughts. I don't think it follows. Just because both schizophrenia and artistic temperament are characterised by "unusual cognition" doesn't mean that they're related. Being drunk is like being a lemur in that they both prohibit you from driving a car, but it doesn't follow that drunkenness and lemurness are related.
    - yters 16y ago
      Right, you can respond that way to pretty much any correlation. But, if there's a plausible explanation for an actual connection, such a dismissal is too trite.
jerf 16y ago
That's another way of expressing a desire for people to go insane when medicine could have cured them because you have enjoyed the output of the insanity. I realize you may not have thought about it that way, but I hope that once you do you realize that that is an awfully impolite thing to ask of others. We've got enough brilliance around that doesn't destroy the hosts after shredding the best years of their lives to keep you satisfied, I think.

hugh3 16y ago

I don't know much about Kerouac, but from reading his biography I don't get the impression that Nash was brilliant because of his illness. He was brilliant in spite of his illness, or more accurately I think he was brilliant before his illness really started hitting him and he was never really the same again afterwards. Schizophrenia has destroyed a lot of promising young minds, and I'm not convinced that it has created any.

adammichaelc 16y ago
That doesn't sound right. From what I've read, people with mental illness and those who are highly creative may get the trait (creativity on the one hand and mental illness on the other) from the same source.[1] From a study on the subject: Daniel Nettle, a psychologist at Newcastle University, and Helen Clegg, at the Open University in Milton Keynes, carried out the survey. On analysing 425 responses, the psychologists found that artists and schizophrenics scored equally high on unusual cognition, a trait which gives rise to a greater tendency to feel in between reality and a dream state, or to feel overwhelmed by one’s own thoughts. [1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/nov/30/psychology.highereducation http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/nov/30/psychology.hig...
- hugh3 16y ago
  the psychologists found that artists and schizophrenics scored equally high on unusual cognition, a trait which gives rise to a greater tendency to feel in between reality and a dream state, or to feel overwhelmed by one’s own thoughts. I don't think it follows. Just because both schizophrenia and artistic temperament are characterised by "unusual cognition" doesn't mean that they're related. Being drunk is like being a lemur in that they both prohibit you from driving a car, but it doesn't follow that drunkenness and lemurness are related.
  - yters 16y ago
    Right, you can respond that way to pretty much any correlation. But, if there's a plausible explanation for an actual connection, such a dismissal is too trite.

jerf 16y ago

That's another way of expressing a desire for people to go insane when medicine could have cured them because you have enjoyed the output of the insanity. I realize you may not have thought about it that way, but I hope that once you do you realize that that is an awfully impolite thing to ask of others. We've got enough brilliance around that doesn't destroy the hosts after shredding the best years of their lives to keep you satisfied, I think.