Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-26
GENIUS IS
INSANITY
ABNoRMALITY is MADNESS, SAYS
ALIENlsT
WE ARE ALL GOING CRAZY, AN
OTHER ASSERTS
Reformer and Criminal Alike, Declares
Prof. A. cDonaId-situatio
Becoming. Alarming Is the
View of Specialists

PLAYA DEL REY, Aug. 25.-Are you
aeniuse Then you are insane. Are you
crazy? Then perhaps you are genius
and don't know it,
Such are the conclusions reached after
listening to the fascinating conversation
OF Prof. Arthur Macdonald, specialist in
the United States bureau of education,
foremost among the worlds psychologists,
who arrived here on the Balloon route ex-
cursion yesterday and is the guest of c.
NJ. Pierce.
.Human beings are divided into the
normal and the abnormal" said Prof.
Macdonald land abnormal is simply
departure from normal.
THUS a great reformer and a great
criminal are both abnormal in the sense
Of diverging from the normal man.
1.-THE principal and extreme forms of
human abormality are insanity, genius
and crime.
"Crime includes all excessive degrees of
wrong.
Insanity Is not only a disease of the
brain. but also diseased alteration of
the personality. Inc fiuctuating line be-
tween sanity and insanity. as frequently
seen in public and private life, can oscil-
late between the extremes of genius and
mental disease Such men show peculi-
arities in thought, feeling and action
They are called strange or foolish because
the majority of men feel or act other
wise.
''As matter of fact we are all crazy
to a certain degree because there is no
dead line which marks the normal human
being.
Magnate Mailman
II know personally of numerous aston
ishing cases practically unheard OF in the
outer world For instance, one of the
greatest railroad men in the United States
today is insane. OF course, he does not
show it in his ordinary walk of life, but
in his office, when he is considering ire
mendous schemes of construction he shows
extreme insanity. His ideas happen to be
level with reason in the end, and so his
great system of railroads develops won
derful things He just happens to be safe
that is all
"This man is so engrossed in his own
impulses as not to be conscious of how it
affects others. And yet every newspaper
reader sees his name in type PROBABLY
every day of the year.
t.Extreme nervous sensibility may en-
dow a person with genius, but not the
highest genius for it lacks the power of
critical sense and the vast intelligence of
the genius which permits him to correct
his wild Imagination.
1.-THE insane temperament shows origi-
nality and critical power.
There are a number of examples of in
sane temperaments ranging from inspired
idiots to inspired geniuses. Take for in
stance De Quincy, Cowper, Turner, Shell
ley, Tasso Lamb and Goldsmith.
Genius Unwise
''They are original, but in the highest
degree impractical and unwise, in the con-
ventional sense of the term.
but the discrimination of the very
highest flight of genius from insanity is
difficult and at times an impossible I'M
dertaking, for they may exist in one and
the same person.
More people of great genius exhibit
manifestations of insanity than do per-
sons OF ordinary mental faculties.
"Great men are madmen. Look at
Burns Swift Mozart, Hayden, Walter
Scott, Blake and Poe.
Think of the personalities of the great
men of our own day. Genius is mark
of insanity. There are Edison and Mar
conf, and George Gray Bernard. the sculp
tor, and George Bernard Shaw. We can
remember the insanity of Whistler, whose
egotism and art enraged and charmed the
world.
"A glance at the geniuses of the past
shows that all were insane-among poets
Lenau. Heinrich. Won Kleist. Holderin,
Gutzkow; among artists, Robert Schu-
mann. Carl Blechen; among scientists,
Pascal. Frederic Sauvages, John Muller,
Robert Won Meyer; among statesmen and
generals, Tiberius and the duke of MARI
borough.
UnproductiVe
IA large number of geniuses were the
last of their line, as Democritus, Socrates,
Plato, Aristotle, Caesar, Augustus, Ga
lena, Paracelsus, Newton, Shakespeare
Leibnitz. Kant. Voltaire, Gustave Adolf
plus. Frederick the Great, Napoleon,
Lime Cuver, Byron. Alexander Won
Humboldt-all madmen. The family of
Schiller have died out in their male MEM
bers.
1.-THE dying out of genius can only be
explained by the weakness of their or"
CARNATIONS and the resulting hyperaes-
thesia.
This is also an explanation of the fact
that the brothers and sisters of geniuses
are often mediocre and sometimes weak
minded
Genius is the highest expression of in
tellectual activity, which is due to an
over-excitation of the nervous system.
Genius is isolated. 1t is the sum total
Of natures energy, after which her pro-
creative forces are exhausted. When the
mind reaches it's highest limit 1t is in
danger of falling into dementia. The
cerebral troubles of great men from
simple nervousness to normal perturba-
ton are the natural If not necessary eff
fects of their organization.
''Tolstoi acknowledges that philosophical
skepticism has led him to condition bor-
dering on insanity"
All Crazy in 2oo7
From DR.. Forbes Winslow, noted alien
list and supervisor of the insane of Lon
don, England, comes the prophecy that
within the century all the world will be
as mad as the proverbial March hare.
According to statistical figures gathered
from all over the world" says this British
alienist, ut can be shown concluslvely
that within a certain number of years
there will be actually more lunatics in the
world than sane people. The burning
question of the day is how to prevent
this dreadful increase of insanity"
Local alienists, while declaring DR.
Winslow's prediction extravagant, admit
that the insanity situation is becoming
alarming and that the ratio of sane ant
insane in Los Angeles constantly favori
the latter.
hM--f-A o..