The Insanity Hoax: Exposing the Myth of the Mad Genius [Second Edition]

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The mad genius is a favorite cultural stereotype, but despite media caricatures, popular expectations, and the extravagant claims of a few, there’s no scientific proof that creative people are crazier than anyone else. Drawing on four decades of research, psychologist Judith Schlesinger tracks the myth from its birth in ancient Greece to modern times, showing how it distorts society’s view of our most exceptional minds. Psychologists once claimed that geniuses were stammering, pasty-faced vagabonds. Today they are called bipolar, which is equally scientific. It’s high time to retire all the cartoons.