Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-04
GREAT MINDS AND MADNESS.
Causes Of Genius and Insanity-Study
Of Their Relation.

or Their Relation.
From the Literary Digest.
These two are declared by the poet to be
near allied" but the question can scarcely
| be said to have been definitely settled In
a brief article in Cosmos Paris) a con-
tributor to that magazine gives his opinion
that the frequent occurrence Of genius and
abnormality in the same person does not
show that one Is the cause Of the other
It certainly proves. however, that a man
who Is almost a lunatic may be at the
same time OF unusual mental development
Says the writer:
Unless he has completely lost his wits
every man Is directed and determined In
his acts by motives. With some, the fear
Of the police. with others, high ideal OF
duty. are powerful motives that prevent
their doing certain anti-sociai acts
In the theories of modern criminoIogists
the guilty man Is he who does not under.
stand how to adapt himself to his environ
ment; he is an anti-social person. He must
be put where he can do no HARM and be
cured IL possible. We used to say that he
must be punished reformed.
Some delinquents are not capable of un-
Outstanding and obeying the moral law; II
these have completely lost their minds they
may be sent to an asylum But there are
persons who are half-crazy. half-responsi-
BILE, for whom we need refugees that differ
both from prisons and hospitals. In which
they will be cared for while enjoying all
the liberty compatible at once with their
own security and that of others
Theoretically. nothing Is simpler: prac-
tically. when the half-crazy person has
yet committed no act that will bring him
under the condemnation Of the law, to de-
prive him of liberty would be difficult and
would give rise to all sorts of arbitrary
measures.
For the partially crazy, as for the wise.
no fol iS fha
1t has often been said that genius is akin
to madness. IombroSo has also shown that
it Is related to epilepsy. In the case of a
somewhat abnormal man, whose mental fac
uities are uneyenly developed. what is the
Areopagus that is TO decide whether he
shall be sent into safekeeping or shall go
to the academy. his ashes finally to rest in
the Pantheon?
LAS cerebral troubles do not always lead
to anti-soeial acts. we must respect personal
liberty for half-demented persons may be
very intelligent, may have talent even
genius. Here are some examples: August
Comte was more than half insane; he was
altogether so for considerable time .
Saint Simon proclaimed himself vicar of
God and scientific pope l might also
cite Guy de MaupaSSant Villemain,
who believed himself prosecuted by the
Jesuits; Schumann, who attempted to kill
himself: Jean jacques Rousseau, who was
a hereditary neuropath and finally
wrote to the Almighty a very tender and
Eainii1ari letter WHICH ne pldceu uflu6T tH6
altar at Notre Dame Tasso, who
had Authorizations, Gerard de Nerval mys-
tic. occultist. nomad and bohemian, who
led a live lobster by blue ribbon to the
Paiais Royal and ended up by
hanging himself in low resort; Frederick
Nftzsche. who was several times confined
In asylums and finally became an incurable
1unatic; Schopenhauer, who was neuro-
path by heredity and presented a series OF
oddities and eccentricities> do not speak
of F1aubert who was a hystero-epiieptic of
HOFFMAN, and Edgar Poe. who were dipso-
who were hypochondriacs, of Bernardin de
and SO ON.
1T may even be asked whether neuroses
are not special condition marking mental
superiority and constituting In some meas
ure the payment for 1t.
'Neurosis Is certainly not a necessary
condition of superiority. 1t Is frequent in
numerous mediocre persons and Is wanting
in many superior men, When the same man
Is at once neurotic and superior he Is as
Grasset says neurotic In zone of his
nervous system and superior in another.
Tt Is perfectly natural. on the other hand.
that an unaccustomed intellectual activity
which is In a way anti-physiologfc, should
develop certain nervousness in some men
given to mental labor There Is also an
abnormal degree of pride that develops In
some writers or artists who have been
spoiled by success. making them lose con-
troll Of their acts driving them to ex-
travagances for the purpose of astonishing
the philistlnes' and proving their own SUI
periority."