← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Conservative
Thread ID: 9062 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2003-08-16
2003-08-16 01:44 | User Profile
The following is from [url=http://groups.yahoo.com/group/e-l/]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/e-l/[/url]
--- In 7306 of 7344, Marian Van Court wrote:
Paul Cooijmans writes: Now I am highly intelligent, but also have Asperger Syndrome, a form of autism, and there is schizophrenia in my family. Should I procreate or not?
Genius and insanity are linked, as Richard Lynn says in his book Eugenics: A Reassesment, so it's not 100% a bad thing to have in your family.
Lynn, however, quotes Post's finding that prevalence of psychoticism in geniuses varies depending on the type of genius considered. Post found that scientists are only 2% afflicted with psychotocism and that the less socially relevant categories of politician, composer, thinker, writer and artist show affliction with psychoticism at rates of 11%, 11%, 14%, 20%, and 25%, respectively.
Lynn's ultimate conclusion at the end of the Psychopathic Personality chapter (p 116) of Eugenics: a Reassessment is that "If a eugenic society were able to reduce the incidence of psychopathic personality, there might be some loss of creative achievement.... In the longer term it should be possible for a eugenic society to produce a population free of psychopathic personalities but with some individuals with the right mix of subclinical psychopathic personality and high intelligence and strong ego-strength that appears to be conducive to creative work."
-Chris
2003-08-16 02:05 | User Profile
Interesting. But "scientist" and "artist" are not related at all. Scientists must be rational. Artists are usually better off nuts.
A longshoreman is at risk for back injuries, autoworkers get carpal tunnel syndrome and coal miners still have to protect themselves from Black Lung. Different jobs are going to bring in different risks. It shouldn't be a surprise that brainworkers risk their brains.
2003-08-16 05:20 | User Profile
Only one in nine politicians is psychotic? I question these numbers. :)