The Myth that High Intelligence and Insanity Go Together

High intelligence and insanity do not necessarily go together. One reason there could be the perception that high intelligence and insanity go together more than they really do could be explained by the fact that many of the people most famous for extraordinary intellect, accompanied by mental health problems, are people who had high ability in one area. At the same time, many of these individuals have actually lacked mental/emotional development in other areas, leading to their being very accomplished in their field of expertise while not necessarily being a well adjusted or well rounded individual.

Another point is that mathematical and scientific "genius" are often the result of a person's having those skills in extremely high degrees without having equal or sufficient development of the skills needed to be a well adjusted person who can cope well with stress. Whether the person who lacks "person" skills (understanding of self and others) became interested in math or science because those subjects allowed him to focus intently on them rather than require more interpersonal interaction, or whether his brain is actually so well developed in the skills associated with math and science he just gravitates toward those subjects is a question. Either way, at least when it comes to extraordinary math and science accomplishment the person most likely to be known for either of those may also be more likely to have difficulties when it comes to "just being a person" and knowing the most well adjusted ways of dealing with stress and pressures. In other words, high intellectual ability in the singular subjects of math or science without being balanced by similarly high ability in other skills could account not just for the math genius with leanings toward mental illness, but toward the "run-of-the-mill math person" who lacks what is called "common sense". Common sense is related to the verbal/reasoning skills often associated with the type of intelligence toward which girls/women naturally lean. While both genders, of course, possess a range of skills that may or may not be associated with one gender or the other, it is now understood that males and females often (not always) lean toward different types of skills. Common sense, which is really skill in seeing the big picture, solving problems easily, understanding human nature, and having strong communications skills, comes in handy for the gender that usually has and raises the children. With a possible natural leaning toward male-associated skills, like spatial skills, at least some baby boys may be at a disadvantage when it comes to interpersonal skills and communications skills. The boy with parents who haven't quite done the best job of proper nurturing may be at a bigger disadvantage.

Testosterone is said to be associated, of course, with brain development. Recently, the question of whether too much testosterone could be involved in the development of Autism has been raised. Autism is known for lack of interpersonal and communications skills, while people with Autism often have high mathematical ability. There is a higher incidence of Autism among boys than girls.

Because of their natural leanings toward spatial skills, rather than interpersonal and verbal skills, parents of all boys may need to put in an extra effort to nurture those other skills in boys. Whether or not some boys require even more of that type of nurturing is not an issue to be addressed here. The point is while girls may have a headstart in understanding themselves and others, as well as developing coping skills, boys often do not have that headstart. Without a solid understanding of oneself, other people, coping skills, and "the big and small pictures", an individual will feel more stressed and alienated than the average person does. Feeling stressed and alienated is not conducive to good mental health, needless to say. The chicken-or-the-egg question is: Do people with extraordinary mathematical abilities start out lacking interpersonal skills and the knowledge of self that contributes to a sense of confidence and wellbeing, which may then reinforce the development of the mathematical abilities; or is the "over-development" of mathematical leanings the result of nurturing that paid little attention to other types of cognitive development?

Until fairly recently, women have generally not enjoyed their place at the table when it comes to academical and professional accomplishment, so there is not an over-abundance of women (needless to say) with accomplishments of equal importance to those of people like Newton or Einstein. Until fairly recently (and even today) the world has been fairly tough on little boys, and little attention has been paid to nurturing those skills that often come naturally for girls.

Considering that people of the stature and accomplishment of Newton and Einstein are quite rare, and considering the time in history in which they lived, it is easy to see that the relatively few individuals of extraordinary accomplishment in the fields of math or science do not necessarily represent all people of high intellect. Further, considering the focus, demands, and sacrifices required by a life devoted to such accomplishment, it is easy to see that people with more balance to their personality may not be willing or able to put in the kind of time and effort required by a life devoted to such work.

There is, however, high intelligence accompanied by excellent mental and emotional health. The intelligent person who is not focused on a single subject, such as math, though, and who instead has interest in many subjects (which is actually part of the definition of "gifted") can be less inclined to devote the time and energy needed to achieve extraordinary accomplishment because of his/her multiple interests. Also the person with "well rounded" high intelligence is often more likely to be overlooked by the schools as a result of the fact that this type of student may high his/her intelligence, may underachieve for any number of reasons, and may even see "being the best" in school as less important than a math-driven counterpart may.

Since science knows that girls tend to lean in the direction of developing certain mental processing skills while boys tend to lean in the other direction, and since the skill development toward which girls lean more includes the skills required to essentially know how to be a well adjusted person, the fact that males have historically been the primary contributors to the world's major accomplishments could explain why those who are known for brilliant accomplishment in history often lacked those "knowing how to be a well adjusted person" skills.

In the 1920's Louis Terman tested the IQ's of children. Before Terman's studies conclusions about high intelligence had been based on individuals of high accomplishment. Terman and colleagues followed the individuals from childhood to adulthood and found that children with very high IQ's when tested had grown into adults who remained superior in most areas. Terman's studies showed that gifted children were more likely to grow into well adjusted adults and that there was no higher rate of mental illness in these very capable individuals. This doesn't mean that gifted individuals are immune to emotional or social problems. Terman's studies simply showed that well adjustedness in gifted individuals is more common than had been previously believed, and mental illness rates were not higher in extremely bright individuals. Questions have since been raised with regard to the ways the studies were conducted, the general conclusions of Terman's studies are not necessarily in question.

Schools, naturally and rightfully, value academic achievement. Schools often are not capable of knowing which students have extraordinary potential but underachieve. Sometimes better-than-average-but-not-great grades can be underachievement without looking like it. Sometimes underachievement is related to a student who gets terrible grades but has extraordinary potential. As a result, there is a naturally occurring screening process in schools that causes students with "specialized" skills (particularly in math and science, which are often considered subjects requiring "more intelligence" than verbal-skills subjects), and with the inclination toward intense focus or just the natural ability to excel rise to the top, to become known as the "most intelligent" students. Many of these students who are seen as the "most intelligent" students are also seen as "odd" individuals. This could be one reason that many people grow up believing that the "most intelligent" people tend to be "odd".

One of the definitions of a "gifted child" is his/her interest in a wide range of subjects. There are children who, when tested, will show superior ability in all areas of mental processing. Regardless of any natural leaning toward development of skills associated with either gender, anyone who has tested people's IQ's knows that people who test high on all areas do exist. This includes people who test extremely high. One problem is that the person who is very well balanced and mentally healthy AND who has high ability is often the person who places family or other life factors first, rather than devoting the time and energy needed to pursue career interests to the degree that the more singularly focused individual will. This, of course, means that the more narrowly focused individual is more likely to accomplish great things but is also more likely to be prone to mental health issues stemming from lack of balance.

While there was a time when people (for example, the Founding Fathers of the United States) with high verbal reasoning abilities and analytical writing skills were seen as very intelligent, the arrival of the high-tech age (and the reality that high-tech careers often meant higher earning potential) meant schools in recent decades have often completely failed to realize that there are intellectual skills related to intelligence that are separate from math/science-related skills. Teachers, students, and others have come to think of math and science ability as the only signs of intelligence. Attention has been paid to how to get girls to catch up with boys; and the irony of an age where Feminism bloomed is that the skills that often come more naturally to girls than boys are the very skills people stopped paying attention to somewhere between the signing of Declaration of Independence and the first computer system.

What about those criminals often considered to be "evil geniuses"? Highly gifted people are generally said to have superior ability to empathize with others, have a well developed sense of morality, and sometimes have a sense of a "higher calling" (spirituality). Very intelligent criminals do exist, but their crimes show that they are damaged people - not necessarily insane people. Hitler had been known as an "evil genius", but Hitler demonstrated neither empathy nor a sense of morality or spirituality nor a common-sense understanding of humanity. This would imply that Hitler was either not as intelligent as some believed he was or else that he was a severely damaged individual.

Another contributing factor to the common misconception that high intelligence must also bring mental illness is the fact that highly intellligent people do things for reasons that less intelligent people don't understand. It can be as if the very intelligent person is seeing the view from a rooftop and forming conclusions or taking actions based on the broader view, while people with average of slightly above average intelligence are seeing the view from ground level and forming conclusions based on the more limited view. The person on the ground cannot see what the person standing on the roof can see, so there are times when the person on the roof doesn't make sense to the person on the ground.

Because some connection has been drawn between high intelligence and insanity (i.e., the John Nash story/"A Beautiful Mind") it would not be reasonable to say that there is never a connection between at least some types of high intelligence and insanity. What is often not understood is that there is vast ignorance about what intelligence is, what it looks like, and where it comes from. One of the criticism of the selection process used in the Terman Studies is related to Terman's selection of clearly well adjusted, highly intelligent, children for the studies. Whether or not the choice of participants in the studies produced the quality of results such a study could have produced, the fact that there were over a thousand gifted, well adjusted, students for Terman to study at all shows that well adjusted, highly intelligent individuals who are free of mental illness and who show no higher rate of developing it exist. Terman proved that high intelligence and insanity do not, in fact, have to go together.