Abstract

Genius and Insanity

The article discusses the book "The Psychology of Men of Genius," by Ernst Kretschmer. The belief that genius and madness are somehow related is at least as old as Aristotle and as new as psychoanalysis. Kretschmer's book, though the work of a very distinguished psychologist, cannot be completely defended against any of the objections suggested. Based upon a series of semi-popular lectures and consisting largely of generalized conclusions, it quite possibly omits some of the statistical material upon which- the conclusions are founded, but well and persuasively though it is written, one is inclined periodically to inquire just to what extent its theories can claim to occupy a plane higher than that of acute though not scientifically controlled speculation. Talent-by which is meant a superior capacity for doing usual or traditional things-he believes to be inherited.