Was Einstein's Brain Size Linked to Schizoaffective Disorder?

[xck]

I hope this is being placed in the right forum. I am still getting acquainted with PF.

The "no dice" post in quantum got me thinking...was Einstein schizoaffective ?

I know very little about him other than his brain size was different...i think. Does anyone know how?


When I think to much, my brain, is a worthless piece of machinery -- it is my servant, not my master. (almost d.y.)

 

[Loren Booda]

Einstein was not schizoaffective (I am). Without the medications we have nowadays, he would most likely be rendered ineffective as a profound thinker - with them only mediocre - and I most likely would be dead. (See http://www.nami.org/Content/ContentGroups/Helpline1/Schizoaffective_Disorder.htm ).

Any romantic notions gleaned from the early success of John Nash in A Beautiful Mind should be offset by the terrible trauma that followed his 20's (when the disease had not yet manifested) and still hamstrings him to this day. I would like to include Prof. Einstein in my company, but this combination thought/mood disorder has caused millions before our fortunate generation to take their own lives or exist in an earthly Purgatory, not become genius.

If you wonder whether new physics can be achieved with this illness, I invite you to view my website, http://www.quantumdream.net.

 

[HotDancer7]

I'm trying to write a paper about Einstein and I need to know some of his contributions to mathematics, not science. Any help you could provide would be absolutely fantastic! Thanks!

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

I'm trying to write a paper about Einstein and I need to know some of his contributions to mathematics, not science. Any help you could provide would be absolutely fantastic! Thanks!

einstein summation:
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/EinsteinSummation.html

 

[xck]

Loren, well heck, maybe he was a manic (I AM).

A good friend of mine is schiz and he is in that "earthly pergatory" you referred to in your host. He was a genius.

When I first asked him what schizoaffective was, he said, "It's a dash of bipolar mixed in with schizophrenia because they don't know what it is." That response was followed with a ... knowing that its onset for him was after he was pronounced "dead" in Arizona years ago after a motorcycle accident. I love him. He has been a wonderful teacher.

As far as mania, oh boy, we have a whole cast of characters in our arena. Churchill, Lincoln (they say hmm), T. Roosevelt, Cobain, Mitchell, too many to list. They are a lively bunch.

Without my medications I arrive at conclusions I never could. It has been a blessing for me after all.

 

[dgorman]

Read the Internet

You don't need to post on a message board to find the answer to this. Don't be lazy. Use Wikipedia. If you don't know where Wikipedia is, find it using Google. Google is a wonderful resource. So is Wikipedia.

 

[xck]

what is ... is

dgorman, if no one posted on this website, and if we all used wikipedioa or google...seems to me this website would not exist.

this is my contribution to this website's existence >wink<



When I think to much, my brain, is a worthless piece of machinery -- it is my servant, not my master. (almost d.y.)

 

[deda]

I'm psycho and I'm better then him and Newton together!

 

[Integral]

Einstein was NOT a mathemtician. His main contribution to mathematics was finding an applicaition for Riemann's work in geometry. The core of differential geometery was sitting on a dusty shelf, seen as sort of interesting, but not very useful. Einstein's work changed that.

 

[zoobyshoe]

xck:

What was it that made you wonder if Einstein was schizoaffective?

I have read the strange claim that he was a high functioning autisic, once, but have never run into anyone who saw anything schizoaffective about him.

 

[Evo]

One of Einstein's sons was institutionalized at age (15?) for schizophrenia.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I wonder what his symptoms were.

 

[Evo]

I wonder what his symptoms were.

I can't remember if they listed them, apparently it was very severe, I don't think he was ever released. I have it in a book about Einstein, I'll see if I can find anything.

Einstein had a pretty sad life. I was surprised at all that had happened with his first wife and kids.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Thanks, but don't go to too much trouble. I'm just curious because they classified things much differently back then. Today he might have been given a different dx depending on what his actual symptoms were.

 

[Evo]

Thanks, but don't go to too much trouble. I'm just curious because they classified things much differently back then. Today he might have been given a different dx depending on what his actual symptoms were.

I remember he would become uncontrollably violent.

 

[MC363A]

i don't care!

 

[zoobyshoe]

I remember he would become uncontrollably violent.

That wouldn't be called schizophrenia nowadays unless he became violent because he thought people were out to get him. They have a dx now called, I think, "rage disorder" which is believed to be related to tourettes'. There is also a complex partial seizure with rage as an aura during which the person will attack whatever is in the vicinity. (I know about one guy who began wrestling with a toilet, and another who attacked a paper towel dispenser, although there have been cases where the nearest person was attacked.) I wonder if Einstein's son had delusions that other people were out to get him, or if he just experienced surges of rage with no particular cause.

 

[Evo]

I'm not sure about the specifics, a lot of illnesses were misdiagnosed in those days.

I used to work with a guy that had Tourette's, but instead of obscenities, he would bark like a seal. I would hear him on the phone speaking with a client and start barking really loud. What was worse was when we would go out to see the client and he'd start barking in their office. He was a super nice guy, I felt so sorry for him, he was too embarrassed to tell the client he had Tourette's so he would pretend to have severe hiccups. The client would be terrified, he was really loud and he did sound just like a seal.

 

[zoobyshoe]

There used to be a woman who worked at a McDonalds where I sed to hang out with friends back in the 80s (when you could still smoke inside and all refills on coffee were free), who made an extremely irritating pig noise at the back of her mouth as she went through the restaurant wiping the tables. I had never heard of Tourettes' at the time and believed she was doing it as a comment on the state people left their tables in.

I think that with Tourettes' it is much better to explain it to people than to try and pass it off as something else, because there is too much chance the other person can feel they're being mocked.

 

[Loren Booda]

I heard that Einstein and his first wife had to put their child up for adoption, for monetary reasons.

 

[Evo]

I heard that Einstein and his first wife had to put their child up for adoption, for monetary reasons.

Their first child, a girl, was conceived out of wedlock and put up for adoption and I believe died in infancy. They had 2 boys after that.

Let me go dig out the book.

 

[Jake]

One of his sons had schizophrenia, and died fairly young I believe. His other son, Hans Albert Einstein, had little to do with his father, and became a proffessor and did quite well in the study of some kind of sedimentary transport science.

 

[xck]

shoe by zoo

zoobyshoe

A good friend of mine told me about it. He had a bit of an obsession with Einstein for a short time. My friend is bipolar (10 richter scale-i'm not), aka, genius in drag.

In your other post "rage disorder" never heard of that one altho I'm not surprised.

I believe one day, they will ALL (many shrinks know and have written about it) agree that it all stems from soul. The spirit has the ability to rearrange the chemistry in time. Yes, it's a long process, but it is a real possibility. Until then, when I see someone barking ("tourettes") in public, I just might meow back >wink<

http://www.cchr.org/sitemap/

Citizen's Commison on Human Rights good info out there. It's been a while since I've visited that site, and it looked like they've really expanded it : ) Thanks for triggering that line of thinking.


When I think to much, my brain, is a worthless piece of machinery -- it is my servant, not my master. (almost d.y.)

 

[xck]

Links

Loren, I tried your links a few times since you first posted. I'm not able to pull up any othem. I was curious about your website. Thank you.

 

[Thallium]

I just read in a science magazine: Psychologists have discovered that geniuses and mad people think much in the same way. Perhaps all geniuses are a bit mad..?

 

[zoobyshoe]

I just read in a science magazine: Psychologists have discovered that geniuses and mad people think much in the same way. Perhaps all geniuses are a bit mad..?

What did they mean by "in the same way"? How did they define "genius" and how did they define "mad people"?