Interesting... maybe what is needed by today's researchers is a pill _triggering_ obsessive compulsive disorder ;-)
Michel 2008/9/22 Stephen A. Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > Remi Cornwall wrote: >> >> Let's have a game of listing people: > > My personal favorite genius: > > Isaac Newton -- Total nutjob. Suffered from severe obsessive compulsive > disorder, which made a mess of his life -- he rarely went out, and was > understandably not comfortable around other people due to his problems > with, among other things, going through doorways. > > *** BUT NOTE *** OCD comes with an interesting side effect, which is the > ability to "obsess" over just about anything ... in other words it > provides one with the gift of amazing powers of concentration. I > suspect very strongly that this had a lot to do with his ability to > solve problems nobody else could, and it probably was one of the > capabilities with aided him in constructing the calculus. > > Suppose Newton were alive today, in the first world (US, Canada, > Europe). He would be diagnosed, he would be treated; he would probably > be put on Prozac or one of its relatives. Based on what I know of > treatment for OCD, he would *probably* be a much happier person. > **BUT** his ability to sit and obsess about something for hours, days, > or as long as it took to see his way through it would be destroyed. > > If we had had modern medicine in the time of Isaac Newton, he would > probably never have developed the calculus, because he would have been > "cured" of his mathematical ability along with his problems. > > Just my two cents.... > >
