In the case of group theory you'd probably just find that these ideas occured in a flash of mostly subconscious insight while the mathematician was actually thi

In the case of group theory you'd probably just find that these ideas occured in a flash of mostly subconscious insight while the mathematician was actually thinking about how the French royalists were conspiring to suppress their previous breakthroughs, or how their lover was actually a royalist plant put in place to trick them into a fatal pistol duel. Something of that ilk, anyway.