The Man of Genius

All this helps us to understand why the great progressive movements of nations, in politics and religion, have so often been brought about, or at least determined, by insane or...

The resemblance between insanity and genius, although it does not show that these two should be confounded, proves at all events that one does not exclude the other in the same...

We have just been considering, in madmen, the substantial character of genius under the appearance of insanity. There is, however, a variety of these, which permits the appearan...

The paradox that confounds genius with neurosis, however cruel and sad it may seem, is found to be not devoid of solid foundation when examined from various points of view which...

It is now possible to explain the frequency among men of genius, even when not insane, of those forms of neurosis or mental alienation which may be called latent, and which cont...

The only exceptions are Tardieu, who, in his _Études Médico-Légales sur la folie_, remarks that the drawings of the insane are of great importance from the point of view of fore...

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The connection which, as we have seen, exists between genius and insanity is confirmed by the over-excitement of the intelligence, and the temporary appearance of real genius fr...

We may, however, enter more deeply into the study of the phenomena of genius by the light of modern theories on epilepsy. According to the entirely harmonious researches of clin...

_Race._--We have seen that in Italy the Greek and the Etruscan racial elements combine with the temperate and mountainous climate to produce men of genius; the influence of race...

_The Influence of Weather on the Insane._--A series of clinical researches, which I carried on for six consecutive years, has shown me with certainty that the mental condition o...

The conception of the morbid and degenerative character of genius is confirmed and completed more and more when its isolated phenomena are subjected to a more rigorous examinati...

Between the physiology of the man of genius, therefore, and the pathology of the insane, there are many points of coincidence; there is even actual continuity. This fact explain...

Buckle thought that most artists, unlike men of science, were produced in volcanic countries.[226] Jacoby, in an excellent monograph,[227] finds the greatest number of superior...

However clearly such laws as we have examined may seem to be ascertained, the conclusions deduced from them must be accepted with a certain reserve; since there exists a series...

But a graver objection is that afforded by those few men of genius who have completed their intellectual orbit without aberration, neither depressed by misfortune nor thrown out...

But these characteristics are not confined to insane genius; they are also met with, though far less conspicuously among the great men freest from any suspicion of insanity, tho...

_Hints to Travellers--Everyday Expressions--Arriving at and Leaving a Railway Station--Custom House Enquiries--In a Train--At a Buffet and Restaurant--At an Hotel--Paying an Hot...

It is a sad mission to cut through and destroy with the scissors of analysis the delicate and iridescent veils with which our proud mediocrity clothes itself. Very terrible is t...

Gérard de Nerval in his book, _Le Rêve et la Vie_, after having confessed that he often wrote in a state of morbid exaltation, adds that the old saying _Mens sana in corpore san...

“‘Quackery,’ says Mr. Thompson, ‘was never more rampant than it is to-day’ with regard to ‘aids in beautifying the person.’ His little book is based on purely hygienic principle...

[462] Mahomet had a strange fondness for his monkey; Richelieu for his squirrel; Crébillon, Helvetius, Bentham, Erskine, for cats--the latter also for a leech. Schopenhauer was...