Of Genius and Madness

There is a link between genius and madness. but where this gift comes from and why is unknown. People with Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder are more frequently found to be highly gifted people. There have been numerous studies that have proven link.

Studies in Sweden done on 16-year-olds showed that the more intelligent teenagers were more likely to develop these mental disorders.


A study of Swedish men whose intelligence was measured during their military careers has found a significant link between high intelligence and hospitalization for Bipolar disorder .

A study of adults showed that those who scored top  grades at school were four times more likely to develop bipolar disorder than those with average grades.


The link was strongest among those who studied music or literature, the where genius and madness are most often connected in people in historical records.  Mania may improve intellectual and academic performance, people with mild mania are often witty and inventive. They tend to have exaggerated emotional responses which shows as  their talent in art, literature or music. In a manic state individuals have a higher capacity for sustained concentration.

More men than in women are shown to be linked with this gift but the difference was not
significant.


Numerous wellknown people have been linked to Bipolar disorder. There have been
lists compiled to show that mental illness can strike anyone at anytime.

Among the famous who have been associated with Bipolar disorder are Richard Dreyfuss, Patty Duke, Carrie Fisher, Linda Hamilton, Margot Kidder, Vivien Leigh.

Singers Charley Pride, Rosemary Clooney, Connie Francis, and Charley Pride have been linked to this illness as are astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Art Buchwald, television host Dick Cavett, Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy.


There are rumors about of many famous people of the past like Vincent Van Gogh, who  throughout his life showed signs of mental instability. Van Gogh has been described as suffering from epilepsy, depression,  psychosis, delusions, and bipolar disorder.



The influential persons whose lives have been studied for extreme, and debilitating, moodswings with Bipolar or Unipolar symptoms are Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill.






Many writers have been associated with mental illnesses and others have been the victims of hospitalizations and or suicide some of them were: Hans Christian Andersen, Honore de Balzac, William Faulkner,  F. Scott Fitzgerald ,  Nikolai Gogl,  Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Joseph Conrad , Charles Dickins, Isak Dinesen , Ralph Waldo Emerson,  Herman Melville, Mary Shelley , Robert Louis Stevenson , Leo Tolstoy , Tennessee Williams,  Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf , Emile Zola.