Why Are The Smartest People So Crazy? The Genius-Insanity Gene

Geniuses tend to be a little bit whacky. Have you ever noticed that? Look at Albert Einstein for example. The man radically transformed modern science but also absolutely refused to wear socks. Why are the geniuses always so nuts? Why did people like Einstein, van Gogh and Hunter S. Thompson act so crazy?

You might be able to think a seldom-understood gene. According to Rob Waugh of Daily Mail there could be some scientific evidence to back up these thesis. According to Waugh, “There IS a link between creative genius and madness — with both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder frequent in highly creative and intelligent people.”

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Studies have been conducted on teens in Sweden 16 years of age. The studies connected the most gifted among them to instances of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

“They found that people who excelled when they were 16 years old were four times as likely to go on to develop bipolar disorder,” says Kay Redfield Jamison of John Hopkins school of Medicine, who suffers bipolar disorder. The people who excelled most had a specific gene – DARPP-32 – which connects genius and mental instability.