Genius and mental illness – is there a connection?

Personality changes characterize schizophrenia disease – the person gradually loses the ability to experience emotions, thinking becomes aimless, the person cannot plan his life and even his day, motivation disappears. During the acute period, perception is disturbed: there are “voices,” “visions,” strange sensations in the body, smells that only he hears. Without treatment by a competent specialist, the disease threatens numerous, frequent hospitalizations, risk of suicide, or disability.

The best pills to relieve the symptoms of schizophrenia are denzapine.

Is there a connection between extraordinary abilities and mental illness? Do madness and genius go hand in hand? Many researchers tend to believe that the creations of many famous people – “the merit” of the disease called “schizophrenia”. They have created brilliant paintings and music, made many significant discoveries, and written beautiful books. They were awarded prizes and called geniuses. Meanwhile, these famous personalities suffered from a highly unpleasant mental disorder.

John Nash

The brilliant mathematician had paranoid schizophrenia, which manifested when he was 30 years old. John and his wife carefully concealed the symptoms, but the progression of the disease could not be stopped. Nash was taken to a clinic. The attacks of the disease haunted the genius all his life, but despite this, he won the Nobel Prize in economics.

Isaac Newton

The eminent mathematician and physicist were believed by scientists to have suffered from delusional schizophrenia. Newton was very withdrawn; in adulthood, he was consumed with research and maniacally worried that someone would steal it. The mood of the genius changed hourly, disconcerting those around him. It is thought that Isaac inherited the condition from his father.

Vincent van Gogh

The famous painter had a whole “bouquet” of schizophrenic symptoms. He suffered from grandeur delusions, visual and auditory hallucinations, and uncontrollable episodes of self-inflicted aggression. Van Gogh was treated several times in psychiatric clinics, but without success. At the age of 37, the artist committed suicide.

François Lemoine

The paintings of this artist were chosen as decoration in the royal palace. He was also entrusted with painting the ceiling in Versailles, during the work on which Lemoine began to have bouts of severe schizophrenia. It is believed that the illness made François choose mythical creatures as his main subject. The disease progressed rapidly, and during another attack, Lemoine committed suicide.

Charles VI

Symptoms of schizophrenia were discovered 12 years after Charles’ coronation. First, courtiers noted the ruler’s irritability and intemperance, which later developed into aggression. In addition, Charles believed he was made of glass and was extremely afraid of being touched. Such a king could not rule the country and was forced to pass the throne into other hands.

Nikolai Gogol

From childhood, the writer imagined voices and was haunted by visual hallucinations. In adulthood, panic, fear of death, and fits of depression were added to it. Depression alternated with periods of activity and inspiration. Gogol also believed that the internal organs in his body were upside down.

Musician Jim Gordon

One of the most famous drummers in the history of rock music worked with Jackson Browne, John Lennon, and won a Grammy Award. And in 1983, the musician, sick with flaccid schizophrenia, suddenly killed his mother. He was convinced that his mother wanted him dead, and he needed to act in self-defense. Despite his diagnosis, Gordon was sentenced to 16 years. Currently, the musician is alive and constantly taking powerful medications.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Researchers believe that the philosopher was sick with nuclear mosaic schizophrenia, which these days is called obsession. He had a mental disorder accompanied by megalomania for the last 20 years, 11 of which he spent in psychiatric clinics. It was then that his principal works were written.

John Forbes Nash

The story of the famous mathematician the whole world learned from the movie “Mind Games” is based on his biography. He was a great scientist who developed the theory of games and received a Nobel Prize. But at the same time, the man suffered from a severe form of paranoid schizophrenia for many years. It was diagnosed when the mathematician was 30, and the disease progressed very rapidly. Vivid hallucinations plagued him – John heard voices and saw people who didn’t exist. Nash believed secret agents were recruiting him to force him to intercept and decipher private messages allegedly printed in newspapers for Russian spies. The mathematician and his wife tried to hide their family problem from everyone for a long time. But Nash’s condition got worse and worse, and he had to be hospitalized. The attacks accompanied the scientist until he was 86 years old until his death.

Conclusion

Famous people and patients with schizophrenia have much in common: a tendency to be creative, an absence of frameworks and compressed boundaries, a flight of fancy. That is why it is challenging to determine what we are dealing with – with genius or pathology in some cases.

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