3 ms·

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 s

by 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.

by hugh3 16y ago

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.