Can there be genius without madness?

Question

Is the same male mind that produces fetishists and murders the same mind that produces the genius? Is the female mind just not complicated enough to produce geniuses?

Do you think there is a difference between the male and female brain?

If so, what are the differences?

Answer 1

Thats funny right there, I don't care who you are.

Answer 2

I think you would have to be a genius to answer this question lol umm i dont think so personally. Im sure there are some pretty smart girls but males r the crazy smart ones. Maybe its just the way yall think hmmm idk man sorry i cant help u. But ur question is interesting :)

Answer 3

I'm not a neurologist so I don't know the physiological differences other than men and women are wired very differently. As to your example quite true, no female Mozarts, and no female Jack the Ripper. As to genius without madness, yes, it is possible. Einstein was not mad (and indisputably a genius) neither is Stephen Hawking. Most of the "mad geniuses" can be found in the arts, e.g., Edgar Allen Poe, Van Gogh, Beethoven, Nijinsky, etc.

As far as "mad" women, Sylvia Plath comes to mind.

Answer 4

You are a conceited little chauvinist, to say the least. There  have been and, are female geniuses, whether your ego wants to believe it or not.EDIT ///////// I just saw a documentary on the Science channel about female serial killers. They used to think they didn't exist, but now they know different. I'm not saying serial killers are geniuses, but what I said shows you know very little about women.

Answer 5

Actually.. its not possible to have genius WITH madness... if you THINK about it.

These people SEEM crazy to us because we are not intelligent enough to understand them. In actuality, they are the most sane people in the world. They see and understand things about the world that we don't.

We may seem "crazy" to most animals because they are to stupid to know how stupid they actually are.

There are more male geniuses than female. However, there are more females of average intelligence than males. Men dominate the extremes while women dominate the "middle". Why? I don't know...

Answer 6

First correction:  I am a female genius.  I am a member of Mensa, the association for people with high IQ's. The passage rate for men and women is statistically relatively equal.

Second correction:  Sociopathy produces murderers.  Sociopaths have an inability to empathize with other people's pain.  It is NOT related to genius.  That is not the same type of "madness" that is traditionally associated with genius.

Answer:  Genius, misunderstood by non-geniuses may appear, at first, to be madness.  Most people thought Einstein was mad, or simply stupid, until he proved that he was right.  

Women's genius has been suppressed and hidden by their forced containment in the household.  However, genius can be applied to motherhood and even the mundane chores of housekeeping.  Unfortunately, this genius goes unnoticed by all but those close to the woman.  I am sure that their families appreciated their flair and elan at home-making.  My mother was a genius at coordinating all of my family's activities while still maintaining a clean and safe home and preparing delicious meals for us.  I give credit where credit is due.

Answer 7

How bizarre, an anti-woman who thinks that women CAN'T  be mad. I think you must be living in some kind of demented bubble if you think that fetish, murder and genuis are only for the males.

Why do you think Rose West did what she did - bored housewife?

Answer 8

This is a very interesting question.

The answers are:

1) Genius almost always comes with a degree of madness, but that rarely entails serial-killer or insanity madness. Eccentricity, enthusiasm, vigor, a frenzied disposition....these are also displays of "madness," and they can be quite positive, actually.

Geniuses like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Bill Gates possess a different type of genius than Vincent Van Gogh, William Shakespeare and Sylvia Plath, and therefore different manifestations of "madness." A mathematical and scientific genius tends to be more socially awkward and obtuse, less verbal, and a bit emotionally withdrawn. A tiny percentage of people with this type of genius will become a Jack the Ripper who needs to express suppressed rage with sadistic, hedonistic acts. A creative genius is deeply emphatic, perceptive, vibrant and articulate. This type of genius is more prone to stick her head in an oven like Sylvia Plath, but most of us are merely quirky.

2) It's true that the majority of pedophiles and serial killers are male and tend to have an above-average IQ that makes them more capable manipulators, but few are geniuses. Their psychology & sociology play a greater factor in shaping their warped minds than their intelligence. The commonality between pedophiles & serial killers is that they stereotypically were social outcasts as children who were bullied, humiliated, and / or subject to harsh physical discipline that left them with a feeling of inadequacy and a desperate need for power or control. There have been a few female serial killers, but they are rare, and female pedophiles are even rarer. The women who have committed these crimes typically have a higher than average level of testosterone in their blood samples. (Seriously)

3) The female mind is as complex, if not more so, than the male mind, and is most certainly capable of producing genius. The person the Guinness Book of World Records lists as having the highest IQ is Marilyn vos Savant, a woman.

"Genius" is not really a term used in education environments anymore because it's too loaded of a label to slap on a kid, but technically a person with an IQ greater than 150 is considered to be one. "Gifted" (IQ higher than 130), "highly gifted," "profoundly gifted" and so and on are the terms used now. I went to a school for highly gifted kids for K-8, and there was an almost even number of boys and girls. Duke's TIP (Talented Identification Program) for highly gifted kids has a fairly equal percentage as well. I have no clue about MENSA, the "high IQ society," because they actually make you pay yearly dues, and they don't do anything cool, so......why join? I don't believe any of my classmates are going to become serial killers, fetishists, or pedophiles, nor are they likely to drown themselves or cut of their ear, but we do tend to have our individual quirks, and being "gifted" is not always a gift. William Shakespeare once wrote that "thinking is the hardest work," and since you can't take a vacation from your brain, it can be exhausting. I've had a problem with insomnia since I was 12 because my mind won't power down for the night easily. Hence the reason I'm on YA at 3 in the morning.................

4) Yes, the differences between the male & female brain are in some ways as great as the um...other primary differences between us. Women tend to have higher EQ (emotional intelligence) and greater levels of empathy & intuition whereas men often have greater spatial & mechanical (which doesn't just mean cars...) intelligence. It has been argued that Aspergers, which is a milder form of autism that Einstein had, is like an extreme version of "male" intelligence. Men and women all have varying degrees of both "genders" of intelligence.

I don't think Camille Paglia's quote is chauvinistic, but it is a bit unbalanced. With a lot of her quotes it takes a bit more digging to unearth her purpose. Like "It is woman's destiny to rule men." : ) I think she does believe in the female genius, actually, she just thinks a genius like Emily Dickinson is diametrically different then geniuses like Mozart or Jack the Ripper.

Camile Paglia has been called a genius.

Holy Moses, this is a long answer! I'm sleepy, so I'm just going to hope this isn't a total string of letters splashed upon the page, and that is somewhat answers the question.

PAX