An article linking genius to autism...

[conuly]

I'd like it a lot more if it didn't start off with the word madness Madness? Wha?

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

I try to keep in mind the formal definition of a psychological problem: Causing harm to self or others.

This means that the same issue can be a problem for one person and not for another, if one of those people views it as a problem and is distressed by it. It means if you're cutting yourself, it's a problem whether you admit it or not, and if you're trying to kill other people it's a problem. But if you're quite happily counting every dandelion on your block and don't mind doing this at all, you're a bit weird, but it's not a problem.

However, I remember in psych class they discussed the tendency of people to try to diagnose historical dead people. They said it's a game some people play - put diagnoses on dead people, and no one can say you're wrong, because they're dead and you can't test the hypothesis. But it's done too easily and you should always be cautious before believing people who are doing that. And it's not just done with psych issues, people love to say famous people had physical ailments too. And sometimes, they probably had whatever someone is claiming, but you can't ever be sure.