mad genius
According to eyewitnesses, Isaac Newton was sick on his head. He was able to work days and nights without sleep and rest, and then fell into a deep depression and suffered from hallucinations and talking to imaginary companions.
Nikola Tesla was not better. In addition to hallucinations, he had a strong fear of dirt and worms. He manic believed everything that surrounds it, for example, calculated the amount of food on the plate.
Among the artists and geniuses of mental disorders are more common than in the environment of inhabitants.
Writers are more prone to depression, researchers are often schizophrenicsAnd artists are more likely to collide with bipolar disorder.
However, while individuals mental disorders stimulate creative and research activity for most people mental disorders are associated with chronic physical ailments, difficulties in communication, career limitations and a shorter duration life.
The difference between crazy and normal people is not so great
In many respects, the concept of the norm depends on the culture and times in which we live. Several centuries ago, the depression was called melancholia, and it was believed that it is caused by a violation of the balance of fluids, called humor.
One of the reasons that mental disorders are difficult to diagnose, is that many of their symptoms - extreme manifestations of normal traits that are at each of us. All of us from time to time can go to extremes and do something strange.
For someone such as painful important sequence in which there are dishes in the kitchen cupboard. This is not obsessive-compulsive disorder, and only an urgent need in a manner that gives a sense of calm and security. Or, for example, sometimes we hear something, even in the room no one else, but that does not hallucinations.
The difference is that most of us fail to notice when our brain has decided to play with us, and quickly back to reality. Those who are sick of different types of schizophrenia is not always possible to distinguish reality from imagination fruit.
We are all in their own little crazy. There is a certain range of behavior and those who are diagnosed with a mental illness, often simply are at the extremes of the spectrum.
Mental rate can be compared with the growth. The growth of most of us slightly oscillates about some average value, but there are those who are on the extreme points - dwarfs and giants. They see the world differently than people of average height. Similarly, those whose mind is on the extreme elevations norms perceive the world differently.
These same extremes contribute to the awakening of creativity and genius. The question is not how to get rid of them, and to learn how to manage them.
Why would nature need madmen
If we imagine that these extremes entail both great risks and great benefit, it can be suggest that mental illness - is an attempt to make nature a risky bet in the hope of winning big winner.
From the point of view of evolution, there is another aspect: in certain situations, some of the manifestations of mental illness could be useful to our ancient ancestors. Psychopath It represents a considerable risk for the environment. But thanks to this same psychopathic he could become the unrivaled leader of the tribe - a cruel but resourceful and cunning.
The paradox is that the same reasons that the gene pool should have been for a long time to get rid of mental problems, contribute to their preservation. The same extreme manifestations that interfere with their carriers in daily life, give a touch of madness of their genius. And we will only win.
Modern society is arranged in the same way. We need a lot of predictable people to engage in everyday work, the results of which we are dependent on a daily basis. Such people are the basis of civilization. But for the progress of modern society are also needed cranks and fools, because they source all new.
Humanity needs creative people, who are not only able to see the world from a different angle, but is so detached from reality, and that they had not come, that their ideas - nonsense.
Since we are all a little crazy, you should know its quirks and tendencies to use them for the benefit of themselves and others. That is why it is important to study their own brain and to understand their own psyche.
Care for mental health It is not reduced to the treatment or correction of the human brain, and to recognize the strengths of its own excesses, combined with the ability to cope with weaknesses.