The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-07-22
BOTH CHIPS FROM
THE SAME BLOCK
Insanity and Genius Are Really Very
Closely Allied
DR.. M'DONALD'S PSYCHIC STUDIES

Closely Allied
DR.. M'DONALD'S PSYCHIC STUDIES
The Genius Has Originality and Crit.
ical POwcr..The Insane Temper.
amcnt Has Originality, but Lacks
Critical POwcr..SOme Of the Great
Men Of the Past Who Have Had
Periods Of Insanity.
From TIE SIN.
DR.. Arthur Macdonald. of Washing
ton. the Bureau of Education expert
in cririnology ard sociology, has de-
voted his life to the study cf psychic
men. In his eyes great genius and a
great criminal are both abnormal in the
sense of diverging IT uch from the ave.
age man. Genius is taken in the same
category with insaLity a.:d crime. All
aes thetical ideas are entirely removed
and in an investie cation OF insari.y ana
genius which DR.. MacDoLa 4 has mad.
he has taken away all those ethical
ideas that We have been accustomed T.
associate with the.a terms. Tha study
was prepared for work of the Bureau
of Education ty DR.. Macdonald on the
abnormal mar.
Some remarkably interesting facts in
regard to the great geniuses of the
world are brought to Light in this work.
r.. a. to,
near the genius that there was orly
slight line Of demarkation. The mani
festatioIs OF sanity in some resoects
cannot be distinguished frCm those of
insanity. The iluctuatirg line between
sanity and insanity, as frequently seen
In public and private LIE, may o5cil,ate,
1t seems. between the extremes of gen.
ius and mental disease. Such men are
sure to show peculiarities in thought,
feeling and action.
The great mass Of leople dub them
strange or foolish. because the great
majority of men feel or act otherwise.
They may become so eccentric as to be
said to have strain of madness in
them. They have detective cord tion
of morality a tendency to sudden cap
rices, to act indepently of society. and
a personal qualification that seems to
others a sign of great vanity. Many
of them, however, are endowed with too
sensitive a nervous system, and while
this may be part of a persons genius.
it Is not of the highest order, for II
lacks the power of the critical sense
and the vast intelligence Of the genius
which permits him to correct his void
imaginatlons. The insa ane temperament
shows originality. but lacks the critical
spirit. The ordinary normal mind has
some critical spirit, but lacks original
ity; the genius possesses both origin
ality and critical power
NOTABLE EXAMPLES.
DIR. Macdonald speaks of number or
examples Of insane temperaments
ranging from inspired idiots to inspired
geniuses. He says that DeQuincy, Cow
per, Turner. Shelley. Tasso. Lamb and
Goldsmith may be reckoned as having
had in some degree the insane temper
ament. The discrimination between the
very highest flights of genius from in
sanity Is difficult and at times an
impossible undertaking. for they may
exist in one and the same person. Tasso,
Burns. Swift. Mozart. Haydn. Walter
Scott, Blake and Poe all exhibited
strong signs of insanity toward the
close Of their lives, II not during their
lives. On the basis Of biographical
facts II is discovered that among dis
tinguished men one finds the largest
number Of insane. and that the children
Of geniuses are inferior even to those
Of average men, owing to convulsions
and cerebral diseases in infancy. AS
DR.. Macdonald puts II, Genius Is al
ways isolated 1t Is a summum Of ma
ture's energy. after which her procrea-
tive forces are exhausted"
Some Of the geniuses the world has
known have had some interesting ideas
on this same question. Aristotle said
that under the influence of congestion
Of the head persons became poets,
prophets and SYPHILIS; Democritus made
insanity an essential condition Of
poetry. Cato said before committing
suicide: Since when have l shown
signs of insanity" Cicero calls 1t the
Juror poeticus: Horace calls 1t the am
abilis insania; Lamartine called genius
fessed that when he composed his great
work he carried himself strangely and
was considered by the people about
him to be insane. DR.. Mcdonald says
that 1t has been a most difficult mat
ter to- obtain facts Of an abnormal or
pathological nature, or other unfavor-
able data, for the reason that authors
In recording the lives of geniuses have
not only concealed such data, but have
not considered them of sufficient i'm
portance to record. These interesting
facts, however. he has CLEANED from
every possible source.
HAD HALLUCINATIONS
Socrates had hallucinations from his
familiar genius or demon. Pausanias,
the Lacedaemonian, after killing
young slave, was tormented until his
death by spirit, which pursued him in
all places and which resemtled his vc-
tim. Lucretius vas attacked with in
termittent mania. Bayle says this
mania left him lucid intervals, during
which he cmposed six books DE rsrum
natula.' He was A years OF ag, when
he put an end to his life. Charles V.
had eppeptic attacks during his youth;
he stamme,ed. He r@tr- atcd to a mon
astery. wher2 he h d the singular phan-
tasy Of celebrating his wn fun 4: al r.tes
In his own presence His mother (Jane
OF CastleI was insane and deforncd
His grand .ather (Ferd nand OF Arag NJ
died at the age of e. in q state Of p-o-
found melarCholia. Peter tn, Grsat
during his Infancy va; subjca, to ner-
vous attacks, which degeneratei t~to
epilepsy. Cno o. his sons had IA lucin-
ations; another coEvuls.ons Caesar
was tpileptc. OF feeble constitution.
With pall!d skin, and subjec: to h. ad-
aches. Linre. piecodu genius. had
a Uranium hydrocephallc In form, He
suffered from u strcke Of sralysis. At
the end cf one attack re had forgotten