You know the old saying, “There’s a fine line between genius and insanity?” Well, apparently, if you buy into the research of Szabolcs Kéri from Semmelweis University in Hungary, there’s some truth to that old chestnut. While studying the neuregulin 1 gene, which affects the function and efficiency of the brain, it was discovered that a variant of this gene causes an increased development of mental disorders like depression and schizophrenia. The very thing that makes you crazy might make you a genius.
As it turns out, people like Sylvia Plath and Hemingway might have been artists who excelled because of their mental problems, not artists whose great works were snuffed out early because of their madness. That might not explain all the strange habits of eccentric creatives out there, but it might explain Van Gogh a little bit better.
I think there’s more than enough empirical evidence out there to safely make this claim. The geniuses of every generation turn to drugs or drink or suicide to cope with their demons. They always have. There’s just something about the exceptional, no matter what their field, that makes them just a little bit odd to the normal world. Such is the weight of genius, I guess.
Image and Tip: Daily Galaxy
Tags: mental health, unusual health research, intelligence, genetics, link between genius and insanity, Szabolcs Kéri, Semmelweis University, Hungary, neuregulin 1