Is Madness and Genius related?

[Stryder]

I'm doing my usual thing, surfing a link or two and come across a discourse on whether Madness and Genius are related, or technically if Geniuses themselves are "Mad".

http://curiosity.discovery.com/topic/human-intelligence/mad-genius.htm

Obviously I instantly thought of Sciforums because we have our fair share of Geniuses and Madmen discussing topics here.

What somehow eventually got found was an article on an Icelandic team that had been studying Neuregulin 1 (nrg1) within the population of Iceland in regards to it being a component of Schizophrenia. This led to finding a few more articles again looking at populations that "share the same ancestry" and a query had been made Why NRG1(or other active proponent) had managed to "survive" and not died off in regards to "evolution".

Well I have a proposed theory and obviously it's based on the Ancestral linage. The linage of the Vikings, as obviously all lands studied have them in common. The Vikings were known to have "Berserkers", warriors that would become so enraged that they would fight with wreckless abandon. However nobody to my knowledge has really considered the depth of a Berserkers "problems". You see if a person couldn't be of use to a community then they would become a burden, a person suffering Bipolar Disorder or Schizophrenia in a Viking community would have been useless, unless a use was found. That use of course being the "Beserker Warrior".

It would explain why the currently portrayed "Diseases" survived, because those diseases became established as proportion of being a Warrior, in some respects even "Revered".

Throughout a number of countries histories conflicts continued to erupt and warriors were still required. (The Picts, Scots and Celts) It could be implied although "Berserkers" weren't units of these civilisations armies, the actual wars themselves are what continued the active disease proponents.

If this is of course the case it would suggest that Military conflict is going to continue genetic traits that would otherwise die out.

 

[cosmictraveler]

Not all geniuses are mad like Albert Einstein and very few mad men are geniuses like Charles Manson.

 

[Lamont Cranston]

Let's take the case of bipolar. A person who is manic gets a lot of ideas, some of which may be very good.

If that person gets very low, he may be unable to write up his work, or delay doing it for many months. However during the time of depression, he may see some of the faults in the original work, and improve it.

On balance, mania allows greater productivity, though some dross would be expected.

So bipolar might be positive for a scientist on balance.

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

and a query had been made Why NRG1(or other active proponent) had managed to "survive" and not died off in regards to "evolution".

Neuregulin is an essential signalling factor for vertebrate embryonic nervous system development. It cannot and will not be evolutionarily lost. If certain NRG alleles are associated with psychiatric disorders, then you might ask why those specific NRG alleles are retained through evolution. But that’s no different to asking why any disease-causing allele for any physiological trait is retained.

(Is ‘evolutionarily’ a word?)

However nobody to my knowledge has really considered the depth of a Berserkers "problems".

Nobody? I would suggest that the psychiatric field has extensively studied rage, aggression and violent behaviour.

So bipolar might be positive for a scientist on balance.

Ooh no, I don’t think so. For other fields of human endeavour, such as artistic pursuits, maybe. But research science, no.

There’s an old saying that goes (paraphrased): Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. That is never truer than it is for science. Although great scientific breakthroughs often initially stem from moments of inspiration, scientific advancement owes itself to lengthy, methodical, consistent, detailed, persistent, patient application of scientific skill. I don’t think bipolar disorder lends itself well to that sort of endeavour. Great scientific ideas need a lot of hard work to realize them.

Besides, much scientific advancement occurs due to pure serendipity rather than inspired reasoning.

 

[Stryder]

Neuregulin is an essential signalling factor for vertebrate embryonic nervous system development. It cannot and will not be evolutionarily lost. If certain NRG alleles are associated with psychiatric disorders, then you might ask why those specific NRG alleles are retained through evolution. But that’s no different to asking why any disease-causing allele for any physiological trait is retained.

My bad paraphrasing what was in an article. However the query was about the trait being retained, my hypothesis was that it was cultivated in regards to Beserkers and potentially revered due to their feats.

(Is ‘evolutionarily’ a word?)

Scream Fraggle loudly and he'll tell us... Although it does appear a mouthful.

Nobody? I would suggest that the psychiatric field has extensively studied rage, aggression and violent behaviour.

I apologise I probably concatenated my meaning. I don't believe historians or anthropologists had identified that "Beserkers" would have had no place in society due to their ailments should they have not been "Beserkers".

Obviously the choice of nouns originally wasn't the best.