Posted by raisinb on February 4, 2009, at 16:02:47
A friend and I were talking about whether there's a connection between being highly intelligent and having more emotional troubles. We're both pretty smart (and modest, obviously! ;) and we've both had terrible depression issues.
I notice that on babble, everyone seems highly intelligent--in fact, a lot of you have or are working on advanced degrees--and you all write beautifully.
I'm reminded of Hamlet--a really smart guy who had terrible problems partly because he analyzed too much rather than taking action. I joke with my students that they'd only have to read a one-act play rather than a bloated five-act tragedy if Hamlet wasn't such a good critical thinker who analyzed every aspect of a situation and thought about it in philosophical terms.
Or maybe having emotional troubles leads to better thinking skills just because we're driven to understand our agony? Or maybe therapy itself makes us more intellectual?
Anyway, thoughts?
poster:raisinb
thread:878008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20090129/msgs/878008.html