Psych Matter

             It had been a long time I was out of the blogging world… 4 months  I think. And for that 4 months, I can only think of one reason to justify it: I had been busy! Busy with work, that’s certainly given. Besides, I finally finished reading the book I first started when I was in second year college. I also had a marathon of a famous american tv series which I really really liked and appreciated. It presented a main character who was diagnosed with this special case that’s psychiatric in nature. I became curious about it so I did some research. I thought it was new for it was the first time I encountered such illness/state, and at the same time, interesting, because it’s said that it could be a reason for either having mental illness or remarkable creativity. It’s called low latent inhibition. Well, as for the main character in the series, it resulted in him being so talented, ingenious and undoubtedly brilliant! Which tv series am I talking about? I guess many people already know. (”,)

            The following is a feature from the Harvard Magazine. It was written by Craig Lambert. I find it informative and enlightening. Now I know that apart from the usual psychosocial factors contributing to the development of mental illness, there could also be this condition, that is, having low latent inhibition which could either lead to psychoses or genius. I haven’t heard of it during college days, back when we were having our psychiatric nursing subject.

The DaVinci Mode: Ideas Rain In

 In 1675 Isaac Newton suffered a mental breakdown—some modern psychiatrists diagnose him as a manic-depressive—and he was still recovering in 1679. But long before that, Newton had already invented calculus and formulated his law of gravitational attraction. Throughout history, genius and madness have often dwelled together: think of Vincent Van Gogh, William James, M.D. 1869, and, more recently, mathematician John Forbes Nash (portrayed in the book and film A Beautiful Mind). Delusional psychosis and inspired creativity, ostensible antipodes of human experience, ironically also seem to be next-door neighbors. Over the centuries, thinkers have wrestled with this enigma, usually on a purely speculative basis. Now, a new empirical study suggests a specific style of cognition shared by those who hear the Muse and those who merely hear voices. The research also suggests variables that distinguish the two groups.
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