Genius and madness are nearby: top 21 crazy geniuses

What is madness?

Until the twentieth century, this word defined many different mental disorders. These included epilepsy, delirium, hallucinations, seizures, depression, and suicidal tendencies. Any person whose behavior went beyond the usual norm was declared crazy.

Today in medical practice the word “madness” is not used. It is used only in everyday life. In medical science, each mental disorder has its own diagnosis.

Forms of madness

There are several classifications of conditions that are defined in ordinary conversation as insanity. Based on the nature of influence on others, two types are distinguished:

• useful: delight, ecstasy, artistic inspiration, foresight;

• dangerous: hysteria, mania, rage and other signs of insanity, during which a madman is capable of causing physical or moral harm to others.

According to the nature of its course, madness manifests itself in three forms:

• melancholy – a long-term depressed state, accompanied by apathy and mental anguish;

• mania – insanity, accompanied by increased excitability, unjustified delight, euphoria, physical mobility;

• hysteria – a pathological reaction characterized by extreme excitement and aggression.

Based on severity, insanity is divided into three types:

• weak, when anxiety symptoms manifest themselves infrequently and in a mild form;

• serious, powerful, frequent and uncontrollable relapses of confusion;

• acute, characterized by severe and chronic mental disorders.

Basic principles of attitude towards a patient with mental illness

Relationships in a family where a mentally ill person lives should be built on five principles:

1. Confidence.
2. Respect.
3. Openness.
4. Restraint.
5. Positive attitude.

A person with a mental disorder should not feel disadvantaged, ostracized, or unable to perform normal activities.

Separation of man and disease

Manifestations of mental disorders do not reflect a person’s personality and do not indicate a change in character. If a patient with schizophrenia, despite treatment, shows aggression towards loved ones, this phenomenon should be perceived as temporary. A disease is something that the patient cannot change on his own.

Why are they going crazy?

Our ancestors associated madness with supernatural forces. The people believed that clouding of reason is most often a heavenly punishment for a person’s violation of divine commandments.

Another cause of insanity was considered to be possession by demons, which completely deprived the patient of self-control. At the same time, the people believed that the madness of the chosen ones was a divine gift.

As for the real causes of madness, it has been established that it can be caused by mental or moral problems. Troubles, grief, anger, fury that fall on one’s head one after another - all these conditions can darken a person’s mind.

Physical factors, such as severe traumatic brain injuries, can also lead to mental illness. One of the causes of insanity is considered to be an imbalance of neurotransmitters.

How to recognize madness?

Symptoms of mental illness can be very different. The main distinguishing signs of a mental disorder are a distorted perception of reality, inappropriate behavior of the patient, and loss of control over his actions.

Genius and madness are nearby: top 21 crazy geniuses

Estragon, the hero of the play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett , said that “we are all born crazy. Some people remain so...” According to the World Health Organization, there are currently more than 450 million people in the world suffering from mental illness. Their growth is facilitated by excessive information flow, political and economic disasters... The harbingers of diseases are stress and depression. But this, as it turned out, is not all.

The debate about the relationship between genius and madness among doctors has been going on for a long time. Stories of great people fuel interest in this. Suffice it to recall the nervous and mental disorders of the post-impressionist Vincent Van Gogh or the writer Virginia Woolf .

And now scientists from the Karolinska Institute (Sweden) published an article in the Journal of Psychiatric Research in which they claim that there is definitely a connection between creative activities and deviations from the mental norm. The reason for this conclusion was the statistics of mental anomalies collected by scientists among more than a million people. The range of deviations was very extensive: schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, depression, anxiety, various addictions, starting with alcohol, anorexia, autism and much more.

The results of the analysis confirmed that people in creative professions are indeed most susceptible to mental illness, and most often to bipolar affective disorder, which was previously called manic-depressive psychosis. Dancers, photographers, scientists, and writers are especially at risk for this disorder.

Literature studies serve as a kind of bait for most psychoneurological deviations. It turned out that writers are twice as likely to commit suicide as other people.

The opposite pattern was also revealed: representatives of creative professions were most often found among relatives of those who suffered from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anorexia and autism.

However, the data obtained do not indicate that passion for literature, painting or photography has a bad effect on the psyche. On the contrary, unusual thoughts or fantastic visions resulting from mental abnormalities, as well as the ability to imagine and hear voices in characters, are likely to motivate a person to take up a pen, camera or brush.

Today, many psychiatrists are convinced: every creative person has more or less significant deviations in the psyche, and brilliant creators necessarily have such deviations - they only help create masterpieces. Most of the geniuses we know clearly had mental problems. Who is this?

All his life N.V. Gogol suffered from manic-depressive psychosis. “I have been taken over by my usual periodic illness, during which I remain almost motionless in the room, sometimes for 2-3 weeks.” This is how the writer describes his condition. He eventually starved himself to death within two weeks.

Leo Tolstoy suffered from frequent and severe bouts of depression, accompanied by various phobias. Moreover, he struggled with melancholy and depression for many years. In addition, the great writer had an affectively-aggressive psyche.

Sergei Yesenin that everyone was whispering about him, weaving intrigues around him. Some researchers of his biography say that the poet had manic-depressive psychosis, suicidal tendencies, complicated by hereditary alcoholism.

And Maxim Gorky had a craving for vagrancy, frequent moving and pyromania. In addition, in his family, his grandfather and father had an unbalanced psyche and a tendency towards sadism. Gorky also suffered from suicidomania - he made his first attempt to commit suicide as a child.

There are known periods of depression and all kinds of mania for the great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin . From early youth, he began to exhibit various psychopathic traits. During the lyceum period they expressed themselves in increased irritability. For Pushkin, there were only two elements: “satisfaction of carnal passions and poetry.” Biographers associate the poet's "unbridled revelry, cynical and perverted sexuality, and aggressive behavior" with excessive emotional excitability. It was usually followed by a long depressive period, during which creative sterility was noted. And one can clearly trace the dependence of creative productivity on the mental state of the poet.

Some biographers of Mikhail Lermontov believe that the poet suffered from one of the forms of schizophrenia. He most likely inherited a mental disorder on his mother’s side - his grandfather committed suicide by taking poison, his mother suffered from neuroses and hysteria. Contemporaries noted that Lermontov was a very angry and uncommunicative person; even in his appearance something sinister could be read. According to Pyotr Vyazemsky, Lermontov was extremely nervous, his moods changed sharply and polarly. Cheerful and good-natured, in a moment he could become angry and gloomy. “And at such moments he was unsafe.”

English writer Virginia Woolf suffered from deep depression. It is also said that she wrote her works only while standing. The outcome of her life is tragic: the writer drowned herself in the river, filling her coat pockets with stones.

Edgar Allan Poe was so interested in psychology. It is believed that he may have suffered from bipolar affective disorder. The writer drank a lot of alcohol, and in one of his letters he talked about his thoughts of suicide.

Pulitzer Prize winner Tennessee Williams suffered from frequent depression. In the 1940s, his sister, who suffered from schizophrenia, underwent a lobotomy. In 1961, the writer's lover died. Both events had a profound effect on his mental state, increasing his depression, which led to him turning to drugs. He could not get rid of depression and addiction for the rest of his life.

American writer Ernest Hemingway suffered from alcoholism, bipolar disorder and paranoia and eventually shot himself with a gun.

Vincent Van Gogh was prone to depression and epileptic seizures. A severed ear is an innocent experiment. He eventually shot himself in the chest with a pistol.

The artist Michelangelo allegedly suffered from autism, that is, a mild form of it - Asperger's syndrome. The artist was a closed, strange person, focused on his own individual world. He had practically no friends.

Alexander Ivanov , the author of the great painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People,” suffered from persecution mania: he was sure that they wanted to poison him, and therefore he bought provisions for himself each time in a different shop and went for water.

German composer Ludwig van Beethoven experienced manic and depressive periods of bipolar disorder and was close to suicide. His creative upsurge of energy gave way to apathy. And to switch gears and force himself to write music again, Beethoven dipped his head in a basin of ice water. The composer also tried to “treat” himself with opium and alcohol.

One of the founders of modern theoretical physics, Albert Einstein was undoubtedly a genius during his lifetime and definitely an eccentric person. As a child, he suffered from a mild form of autism. And his mother almost considered him mentally retarded. He was withdrawn and phlegmatic. The actions of the already adult theoretical physicist were not distinguished by morality. American psychologist Ion Carlson believes that the presence of the schizophrenia gene is one of the incentives for high creative talent. In his opinion, Einstein had this gene. Therefore, doctors diagnosed the scientist’s son with schizophrenia.

Another brilliant scientist, Sir Isaac Newton , according to many researchers, suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It was very difficult to talk to him, he often had mood swings.

Strange things were also noticed about the brilliant inventor Nikola Tesla . He had a mania for finishing everything. So, in college, he decided to read Voltaire, and although after the first volume he realized that he actively did not like the writer, he read all 100 volumes. During lunch, he used exactly 18 napkins, wiping down plates, cutlery and hands. He was horrified by women's hair, earrings, and pearls, and never in his life did he sit at the same table with a woman.

The prototype for the main character in the award-winning film A Beautiful Mind, mathematician John Nash suffered from paranoia all his life. The genius often had hallucinations, he heard strange voices and saw non-existent people. The wife of the Nobel laureate supported her husband, helping him hide the symptoms of the disease, since, according to American laws of that time, he could be forced to undergo treatment. What ultimately happened, however, the mathematician managed to deceive the doctors. He learned to mask the manifestations of the disease with such skill that psychiatrists believed in his healing. It must be said that Nash’s wife Lucia, in her old age, was also diagnosed with paranoid disorder.

Hollywood actress Winona Ryder once admitted: “There are good days and bad days, but depression is something that is always with me.” The actress abused alcohol. Then she was repeatedly caught shoplifting in Beverly Hills. It turns out that Ryder suffers from kleptomania.

Michael Douglas Catherine Zeta-Jones suffers from bipolar affective disorder . Actually, it was this disease that caused discord in this star family.

Another Hollywood genius, Woody Allen , is autistic. Among the favorite themes of his films: psychoanalysis and psychoanalysts, sex. All this worries him in real life. Woody's first wife, Harleen Rosen, filed a million-dollar lawsuit for emotional damages during their divorce. According to her, he humiliated her, demanding sterile cleanliness in the house, creating a menu according to which Harleen had to feed him, and making sarcastic comments about everything she did. After the divorce, the second wife Louise Lasser stated that she was interested in the director as a housekeeper. One day, after returning from a psychoanalyst, Allen told her: “My doctor said that you are not suitable for me physically.” In fact, he met someone else - Diane Keaton. After 8 years, Diana was replaced by another muse, actress Mia Farrow, who adopted a child almost every year. They rented different apartments nearby, because... Allen did not want to turn his life “into kindergarten.” As a result, the couple broke up amid scandal. Mia caught her husband in the arms of her eldest adopted daughter Sun-Yu. Actually, it is she who is now the life partner of the film genius.

The list of famous creative personalities who left a mark in art and suffered from mental illness is endless: Fyodor Dostoevsky , Hans Christian Andersen , Franz Schubert , Alfred Schnittke , Salvador Dali , Leonardo da Vinci , Nicolo Paganini , Johann Sebastian Bach , Isaac Levitan , Sigmund Freud , Rudolf Diesel , Johann Wolfgang Goethe , Claude Henri Saint-Simon , Immanuel Kant , Charles Dickens , Albrecht , Sergey Rachmaninov , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Lope de Vega , Nostradamus , Jean Batist Moliere , Honore de Balzes , Friedrich Nietzsche , Marilyn Monroe and others. Geniuses, what can you do...

Brilliant to the point of madness, or Madness in culture

Since ancient times, foolishness has frightened people. To be convinced of this, it is enough to pay attention to the terrible faces of the deities of madness among different nations. The personification of mental insanity on Greek Olympus was the terrible couple - Mania and Pan.

The mouth stretched out in a crazy smile, the tongue hanging out, the lack of meaning in the eyes. - this is how the Hellenes depicted Mania. She was famous for her art of blinding with some kind of passion: she could send a person an uncontrollable thirst for profit or boundless arrogance.

God, who received the name Pan, horrified his mother at birth: the child was born with horns, a goat's beard and hooves. As soon as he came out of his mother’s womb, he began to swagger and dance. He was appointed patron of the shepherds, but he did not help them so much as frighten them, disturbing their midday sleep with strange sounds and screams

From the names of these gods came two key psychiatric terms characterizing madness. One of them, “mania,” means a person’s obsession with something, accompanied by obsessive thoughts about the object of desire. Another term, “panic attacks,” describes unaccountable, uncontrollable attacks of fear.

Unable to explain mental illness, people attributed it to divine origin. Recklessness has sometimes been considered a source of extraordinary inspiration. For example, during the Renaissance there was a fashion for melancholy. This privileging of madness, according to psychologists, is the flip side of the fear of it.

Many artists and poets of subsequent eras declared various forms of madness to be the best means of complete self-expression. So, for example, Salvador Dali flaunted the “paranoid” nature of his artistic style.

Meaning of the word crazy

It is very difficult to choose a route without bumping into someone you know; and I hate random meetings with someone I know, because I look at him and suddenly realize that he thinks I’m crazy, because I try too hard to look into his eyes so that he doesn’t think I’m crazy , - and then I have to invent some sudden excuses in order to get out faster, that is, I behave exactly like a crazy person.

However, they failed to keep their plans secret, and on the very night when they were going to deliver the Leaning Tower of Pisa to Venice, and the Venetian Campanile to Pisa, they were sent to an insane asylum, and, naturally, the burgomaster of Pisa was sent to an insane asylum in Pisa, and the burgomaster of Venice to a madhouse in Venice.

A man is not a suitable candidate if he is crazy or acts crazy for any reason (including passion).

An empty road Having a good time in the sun The family was returning home Their end was natural A crazy killer who knows neither right nor left He prowls the alleys in his car And then a family comes into his field of vision It’s hard to understand whether he’s drunk to death or crazy They collide A terrible expression faces at the head flying at full speed Soon the vultures will feed on her Dad was the third.

Near the green water, near the smell of mud, watching in admiration the flight of cobwebs, a crazy kid hits an empty can, a crazy kid hits an old can...

Of course, this was a long time ago, only about twenty years after that crazy American Dogeni, at the cost of his own life, solved the problem of a nuclear engine, and the no less crazy Cardoza used such an engine to reach the Moon.

At a time when I seem to see everything so clearly... But... This evening I do not profess the faith of the Savoyard vicar... There were times when I was afraid that I was really crazy, and other times when I doubted this or that thoughts... Now I'm afraid that it doesn't matter whether I'm crazy or normal, right or wrong.

needs to use the services of people, he is crazy, cerebral paralysis, melancholy; if he is deprived of the first need - to serve others, he is crazy of all the most varied types of madness, of which the most characteristic is megalomania.

You're crazy! But this is not the job of a poet. Isn't that what Shakespeare did, When, recognizing Hamlet in himself, He was released into the wide world? He was Romeo and Othello, And he was Lear, and he was Shylock. All this is a creative matter, And not a leap into madness. Don’t call him a madman, Who is drawn to the dreamy world, Don’t tie him up with a rope, Don’t hide him in a madhouse. But I know, people won’t believe In the beauty of dreamy valleys, And they measure all dreams by their small arshin. I’m silent...

Here's what you have to do, Raab: take the Kestrel into the land of the ravines, collect helium to fully inflate her gas tank, slip out to the sea and, once you get to one of the islands, load her with as much guano as you can - maybe even a ton , if you use it instead of ballast, “and then return home without letting yourself be intercepted. Frankly, only a crazy person would think that he is luckier than others to do this,” Kline sighed again. - Okay... if you're the crazy one, I won't stop you.

Can a crazy person recover?

In ancient centuries, they tried to treat mental illnesses with magical spells and witchcraft. They tried to cast out demons from a mentally ill person by reading sacred texts over him. There were cases when a hole was drilled in the skull of a person with seizures so that demons could come out of it. They called on the forces of nature for help, dipping the unfortunate man's head into a tub of ice water.

In the Middle Ages, madness was not treated: it was taken as a divine punishment for a vicious person. Those around him treated him with undisguised caution and preferred to avoid him. Subsequently, people with signs of insanity began to be isolated from society: they were driven out of cities or locked in a separate room.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the underdevelopment of psychiatry led to savage methods of treating insanity. Sick women had their reproductive organs removed. Lobotomy and shock therapy techniques were used.

The theoretical basis for humane psychiatry was the works of the Parisian philanthropist and physician F. Pinel. He developed and applied differentiated methods of gentle therapy in his institution for the insane.

Dr. G. Cotton also entered the history of psychiatry. Believing that people were losing their minds due to local infection, he removed their tonsils, teeth, and internal organs one by one. Deaths at Cotton Hospital were common. However, the doctor fanatically believed in his method, as a result of which he removed the teeth of himself, his two sons and his wife. Today his practice, fortunately, does not find followers.

Modern doctors comprehensively treat mentally ill people, combining psychotherapy with medications. Patients are placed in special clinics, where their suffering is alleviated in every possible way. For bipolar disorders, shock therapy is used, but only under anesthesia.

In recent years, a social movement has been actively unfolding in the civilized world, demanding for every mentally ill person the right not only to leave their environment, but also to gain a new meaning of being through the so-called “journey through madness.”

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What to do with crazy streams of data pouring in from everywhere?

It is impossible to fight all this with normal human methods and is simply harmful to the nerves. The mechanics of the process of the influence of fake information on a person, together with the psychology of misconceptions, have been carefully studied by specialists who successfully use them to influence people.

A person reading on the Internet about conspiracy theories, about the invasion of cannibal mushrooms and the war of reptilians, does not see that the same phrase is broadcast on the Internet year after year.

Whether the strategy of reducing everything to the point of absurdity, which makes it possible to remain in the Internet space, saving nerves, is correct is a controversial issue. The main problem is that people believe everything written on the Internet, just as they used to believe Soviet newspapers, just as they believe everything they say on TV. Listening and believing all this, it won’t take long to become a real madman.

What do women desire…

Discussion: 8 comments

1. Lolo:

   And today I started thinking, why does society immediately declare fools those who do not fit into social norms with their behavior? Is it because we are not initially free and are forced or obliged to live according to the norms and rules established by society itself, which means that anyone who cannot, does not want, or simply refuses to follow these orders is inadequate?

   Answer

   rostduha:

   It’s unlikely that everything is so simple, and social norms were accepted by society for a reason, otherwise the anarchic form of society would have been inevitable.

   Answer

2. Alien:

   Where can we escape from this global prison... There is nowhere to run. Slavery.

   Answer

How did society treat the mentally ill in different eras?

At different times and in different cultures, the mentally ill were treated differently. For example, in ancient times they were treated with tolerance. Having experienced a mystical fear of madmen in the Middle Ages, humanity soon again began to treat them with interest, seeing in understanding mental illness the key to understanding genius. The Italian psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso even wrote his famous work “Genius and Insanity” about this, and his arguments look very convincing. According to medical conditions, Newton, for example, would need to be hospitalized: he had visions, schizophrenic attacks and other mental disorders. There are even more mentally ill people among artists. Van Gogh was schizophrenic, and Edvard Munch created most of his paintings in a pre-suicidal state. If it were not for his creativity, the artist later admitted, he would have committed suicide. Even Mozart and Bach, from the point of view of modern clinicians, look like people with mental disorders.

London Bethlehem Hospital for the Mentally Ill - "Bedlam".

Attitudes towards the mentally ill in Europe

In the Middle Ages, insanity was diagnosed by church ministers. Any dissident could be considered crazy. Fools were put on a ship and sent down the river or into the open sea - to the will of God. Or they were simply kicked out of the city.

In the Renaissance, a person was declared insane by secular authorities. The insane were isolated, chained together with criminals, and driven to death by starvation and beatings.

In modern times, mental illness began to be identified by doctors. People are no longer afraid of the crazy, the seriously ill are isolated for treatment, those who are not socially dangerous are restricted in their civil rights, but are not excommunicated from society. Erich Maria Remarque gives an excellent description in his work, “The Black Obelisk.”

Currently, methods of traditional psychiatry are used to treat mentally ill people with the isolation of socially dangerous individuals. Antipsychiatry is emerging, inviting society to treat crazy people as people with a different worldview, who have the right to freely express themselves and be heard.

Attitudes towards the mentally ill in Russia

In the Middle Ages, a person was declared crazy by decision of the local community. The sick were not isolated; they were often considered conduits of God’s wisdom and tried to be appeased.

In the Renaissance, madness was recognized by secular authorities. They were not isolated, but sometimes they were expelled from the city.

In modern times , patients were isolated in special institutions; before the revolution they were often kept in chains. In Soviet times, political dissidents and independent-minded cultural figures were considered crazy.

Currently, patients are hospitalized on a voluntary basis. Compulsory hospitalization is carried out only in cases of exacerbation of the disease or by court decision. Interest in the creativity of mentally ill people and their personalities is returning.

Attitudes towards the mentally ill in Asia

In Asia Minor, as well as in the Arab East in the Middle Ages, the attitude towards crazy people was not the same as in Europe. In these parts, the concept of legal capacity already existed, and it was determined by the court. One of the main criteria for determining insanity was the person's attitude towards his financial obligations. Murder committed in a state of insanity, confirmed by a doctor, was punished much more leniently than committed in a sane state.

The attitude towards madmen in Japan is very similar to the Russian perception of holy fools: they were considered a channel of communication with the supreme deity. Unlike Europe, there were no prisons in Japan, and there was nowhere to isolate the insane. There were no special charity homes there either. And if a person appeared in the family who behaved inappropriately, then relatives were obliged to take care of him.

Which Great Personalities, in your opinion, were mentally ill?

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What do you call people who are obsessed with cleanliness and order?

Most often, a person who loves order, accuracy, and ideality is called a pedant or perfectionist. If we mean a personality type, then it is characterized by a desire for accuracy in all areas of life. Sometimes such a person is suspected of pettiness because he pays attention to even minor nuances.

Experts note that the need for order and the desire for ideality in the environment are often combined in one person. Such individuals perceive their every day as a challenge to others, taking everything to the extreme and absurdity. A person obsessed with order will not be able to pass by a picture hanging crookedly, and napkins laid out in the wrong order can cause a panic attack.

People with OCD need a feeling of total control. Since they cannot influence the big world, they create their own, in which their rules reign. Most often, this space is limited to your own home. Therefore, a person with neurosis is reluctant to leave his usual habitat, where he feels safe. Here, all things are in inviolable order, and cleaning can last 6 hours a day.

The diametrically opposite manifestation of the same disorder is Plyushkin syndrome. In this case, the person acts exactly the opposite, although the incentives are the same. In an effort to fill the emptiness in their souls and create the illusion of control, they take home all the items that seem useful to them. Some people fill their home with new things from the store that have been sitting in packaging for decades, while others collect trash.

Psychologists note a phenomenon: with parents suffering from a fanatical love for cleanliness and order, children sometimes acquire the diametrically opposite disorder - they wallow in garbage and turn their homes into a dump of unnecessary things that they cannot part with. Any attempt to remove at least something or restore order causes the same attack of panic as those who love perfect cleanliness and germaphobes.