Science Begins to Confirm Link Between Genius and Madness -Wednesday, October 15, 2003 -4:22 am-
Some scientists recently completed a study in which they found a strong link between something called Latent Inhibitions and genius/creativity. Basically they found that really creative people don't have a built-in filter to stop thinking about things. Most people look at a lamp and see a lamp. Someone with low latent inhibitions would see the lamp and not bother to stop there. They'd think about electricity, and fire, and light switches, and lightning. The fact that the light coming out is yellow would take them down a path along which they'd find Big Bird and bananas, and Sponge Bob, and the sun, and yellow submarines, and the Beatles, and insects. The study indicates that creativity is potentially the brain just not knowing when to stop. The problem with this is that without a high IQ and good memory to filter out the noise, such runaway lines of thinking lead to schizophrenia. So there really is a fine line between genius and madness.
Which side am I on?
The article is in the September 2003 issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
The title is Decreased Latent Inhibition Is Associated With Increased Creative Achievement in High-Functioning Individuals
It was written by Shelley H. Carson, Jordan B. Peterson, and Daniel M. Higgins