Games of Madness: Epilogue

This will be another entry into my collection of short stories; however, instead of another short story, this is my theory explaining the connection between insanity and genius.

                When we think of insanity, we generally think of a sort of sickness that impairs judgment and the ability to use reason as most of the rest of humanity does.  This is where the general population is wrong.  Insanity at a certain stage can be described as a lack of reason; however, we only describe it this way because we only diagnose problems, not blessings.  The “normal” human mind has barriers set in it that keep your thoughts organized, and keep them from straying.  For example, have you ever thought what it would be like to turn puppies inside out, and then stash them in a vacuum cleaner?  Most would say no to this, and of those who would admit to such thoughts, many would say that they quickly pushed the thoughts from their mind.  What I suggest is this: if these barriers are removed, or never existed, it would allow thought to occur without filter, our minds would be capable of much more than that of the common person.  Creativity would be off the charts, and with that creativity our minds would be able to apply its other tools to virtually anything.  For instance, being blessed with a logical mind may be useful, but without the creativity to apply that logic in extreme ways to circumvent processes that demand specific knowledge, logic will only get you so far.  A creative mind can expand the uses for every tool that the brain possesses; logic is simply the most useful.  There are two sides to this of course; those without the ability to retain order of their thoughts in their virtually unstructured minds would end up lost in confusion with, very likely, little differentiation of right and wrong.  This type of person is what we generally think of as “insane”.  There are also those who have mental breakdowns later in life, despite living so much of it without the slightest signs of insanity.  That could suggest that when the person experienced something traumatic their emotions managed to twist their understanding of right and wrong, or the meaning of life, or something to that effect that would allow their mind to fall into the chaos that we, again, commonly view as insanity.  For those lucky enough to both be born without these barriers, and retain order in their minds, they experience uncommon intelligence.  Even those who don’t retain order of their minds often are uncommonly intelligent; they just don’t always know how to express their talents.  Theoretically, one could also tear down these barriers themselves; though with limited success; most likely, because they would not have been used to manually structuring their conscious thought, the person could easily fall to the chaos that, again, we consider insanity.

                I don’t suggest that all mental disorders fit this profile; I am only offering possible explanation for the connection between insanity and genius, as well as the implications of the connection. 

-Vincent Vercelli