In the photo: Russian genius Grigory Perelman hates the press and never gives interviews.
The opinion of scientists: almost all great people differed, to put it mildly, in strange behavior
"Only great people have great shortcomings," said the famous French politician La Rochefoucauld. The writer Georges Sand added: “This is where these geniuses sit with me. It's good to read their biographies, it's nice to look at them, cast in bronze or carved in marble, but bad to deal with them. They are evil, erratic, despotic, bilious, suspicious."
And the philosopher Schopenhauer also once revealed the secrets of the great: “Geniuses are not only unbearable in life, but are immoral and cruel, it is difficult for them to have friends. Loneliness reigns on the heights of thought. At the same time, Schopenhauer himself once beat one old woman and had to pay her a pension throughout her life in court.
Almost all great people had their own oddities. And at first glance it seemed that this was not surprising. Like, character traits. And every person has them, regardless of his fame. And only recently have scientists come to the conclusion: the eccentricities and habits of geniuses are a manifestation of an incurable disease. Autism.
The fact that geniuses are not a very normal people, "KP" wrote more than once. In the last publication on January 8, 2009 and on the kp.ru website, we listed the distinctive features of their organisms, discovered by scientists. For example, there is a very dense arrangement of cells in the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for learning. Decreased content of one of the amino acids. Thickened anterior temporal lobes, a large number of nerve connections, high speed of impulse transmission. Five diseases that stimulate the work of the genius brain have been found: gout (increased levels of uric acid in the blood), Marfan syndrome (frequent large surges of adrenaline), Morris syndrome (increased levels of sex hormones - androgens), manic-depressive psychosis and gigantopia.
And here's another misfortune - autism. Her main symptoms were accurately portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the movie Rain Man.
Outs tend to limit contacts with the outside world, to get away from generally accepted norms and concepts. But they have an excellent ability for abstraction and deductive logic. They can get so carried away by work that they completely forget about food. Enjoy immersion in their own inner world.
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CULT OF NON-STANDARD PEOPLE
“There are many outstanding scientists in science who have come close to autism,” says the author of the discovery, professor, member of the New York Academy of Sciences, Alexander Hazen. - These are Newton, Einstein, Darwin, Boltzmann, Planck, Mendeleev, Carnot, Ehrenfest, Schrödinger and many others. Einstein, for example, until the age of seven could obsessively repeat the same sentences for a long time. And Newton lectured for hours in front of an empty auditorium.
It seemed that genius is the ability for deeper and more complete logical processing of information. But we value outstanding people for something else. Their results cannot be obtained by logical development of previous theories. It turns out that autism, which increases the ability to process information logically, becomes a source of genius that breaks the endless logical chewing of known facts. And in the end, they create something so new that is contrary to all generally accepted laws.
- The famous Russian geneticist Vladimir Efroimson wrote that in history, starting from primitive tribes, there has always been a cult of non-standard people, - concludes Professor Hazen. - Range: from altruists to extreme forms - holy fools. Autistic individuals who do not cross the boundaries of pathology belong to the latter category. And for the fact that they have great opportunities for intuitive discoveries in the knowledge of the world, they are indisputable authorities.
Schiller was inspired by rotten apples
Here are just some of the eccentricities of the greats, which often turn into a "visiting card", and sometimes even into anecdotes during their lifetime. They were collected by the collector Gennady Fedotov.
Schiller could only create when there were rotten apples on the table.
Wagner, while composing the next piece of music, laid out bright pieces of silk on chairs and other furniture, which he constantly fiddled with.
Charlotte Brontë was constantly breaking away from writing another novel and going to peel potatoes.
Henri Matisse, before starting to paint, felt an acute desire to strangle someone.
English writer Richard Goughton, while doing literary work, simultaneously wielded a knife or scissors. During his writer's vigils, he cut off more than one writing desk, cut several armchairs, and once ripped his wife's favorite dress that had turned up under his arm.
Edgar Poe could sit for hours at his desk and silently stare at a sheet of blank paper lying in front of him. Maurice Maeterlinck did about the same. Every morning he sat at his desk for three hours, even if not a single thought crossed his mind.
<Georges Sand wrote daily until 11 o'clock and if she finished a novel at 10:30, then she immediately began a new one, on which she worked for half an hour.
The French fabulist La Fontaine, when he found inspiration, rushed about the streets for hours, not noticing the passers-by, who watched in amazement as he gestured, stamped his feet, shouting out the lines that were being born at the top of his voice.
Before publishing his favorite works, Schubert had to play … on a comb.
Dumas (father) wrote only on special square sheets. If there was no such paper or it ran out, he stopped working. And Dumas the son, to awaken inspiration, loved to eat thoroughly five times.
Charles Dickens always took a sip of hot water every 50 lines of what he wrote.
Russian genius Grigory Perelman easily gave up a million dollars.
For inspiration, Johannes Brahms constantly cleaned his shoes unnecessarily.
Benjamin Franklin, sitting down to work, stocked up on a huge amount of cheese.
Johann Goethe worked only in a hermetically sealed room, without the slightest access to fresh air.
FORGOTTEN THAT HE IS HE
The absent-mindedness of some geniuses is striking. Diderot forgot the days, months, years and names of loved ones. Once the famous physicist Ampere, leaving his apartment, wrote in chalk on his door: "Ampere will be at home only in the evening." But he returned home in the afternoon. I read the inscription on my doors and went back, because I forgot that he himself is Ampere.
There is a known case when Newton, having conceived to boil an egg, took a watch, noticed the time and after a couple of minutes found that he was holding an egg in his hand and was cooking a watch. When the great physicist wrote his works, absorbed in thoughts, he forgot to dress and eat.
Albert Einstein, meeting his friend, absentmindedly said: “Come to me in the evening. I will have Professor Stimson too. " His friend, puzzled, objected: "But I am Stimson!" Einstein replied: "It doesn't matter, come anyway!"
The father of Russian aviation, Zhukovsky, one day, having talked the whole evening with friends in his own living room, suddenly got up, looking for his hat, and began to hastily say goodbye, muttering: "However, I stayed too long with you, it's time to go home!"
TOTAL
Full out
According to psychiatrists, there is a complete similarity between out during a seizure and a genius who contemplates and creates his own work. Here, for example, how his physician describes the state of the greatest Italian poet of the 16th century Torquato Tasso: “The pulse is weak and uneven, the skin is pale, cold, the head is hot, inflamed, the eyes are shiny, bloodshot, restless, running around. At the end of writing a work, the author himself often does not understand what he expounded a minute ago. Full out.
BTW
This amazing Perelman
Petersburg mathematician Grigory Perelman managed to surprise the whole world twice. The first time was when he proved the Poincaré conjecture, the solution of which was fought by the best mathematicians of the 20th century. The second time - when he began to resolutely refuse the well-deserved "laurel wreaths" - a medal and a possible prize of a million dollars, established by the Clay Mathematical Institute in Boston.
Now the genius is unemployed and lives on his mother's pension. Isn't that strange behavior?
This is how psychotherapist Alexey Doronin characterizes it:
- It's like autism, which borders on pathological social rejection. Or perhaps it is agoraphobia - fear of publicity and openness.