The genius is on the left, the lunatic is on the right

Chapter 28 Eight "abnormal" geniuses
Ding Zhaozhong, a Chinese scientist who won the Nobel Prize, said: "The distance between a genius and a neurotic person is very short." And the great philosopher Aristotle once said: "There is no genius who is not a genius. Kind of crazy."

Dr. Felix Post, a British psychologist, studied 300 famous figures in modern times through the analysis of modern psychopathology, and found an interesting phenomenon: 17% of politicians have obvious symptoms of psychosis , such as Hitler, Lincoln; scientists accounted for 18%, such as Ampere, Copernicus, Faraday; thinkers accounted for 26%, such as Russell, Rousseau, Schopenhauer; painters accounted for 37%, such as Van Gogh, Picasso; novelists And poets accounted for the largest proportion of 46%, such as Lawrence, Proust, Faulkner.Through this research, he believes that there is indeed a certain internal connection between the creative talent of geniuses and the morbid psychology of mental patients.

NO.1: A genius epileptic - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, one of the great Soviet writers in the 19th century, is as famous as Leo Tolstoy, Turgenev and others, and is an outstanding figure of Russian literature. Representative, is one of the most complex and contradictory writers in the history of Russian literature.Some scholars believe that he is the founder of existentialism, such as the American philosopher Walter Arnold Kaufman once believed that "Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground" is the perfect prelude to existentialism".

One night in 1863, Dostoyevsky came to the home of the Russian literary critic Strahov as a guest. He often came here to sit and chat casually during evening walks.

That night, the two had a good talk, and Dostoevsky was very excited, talking loudly about various topics, and because of his excitement, he kept walking around the room.Strakhov agreed with Dostoyevsky, which made Dostoevsky even more excited, with a look of excitement on his face and a louder voice.

Obviously, Dostoevsky's emotions reached a climax, which is why he often came to Strahov's house as a guest, because he could chat well and get the other party's appreciation at the same time.

However, the unexpected happened, and Dostoevsky happily explained his views, while Strahov listened quietly.But suddenly the former stopped, and then the room was abnormally quiet, so quiet that it made people frightened.At this time, Strahov already felt that something was wrong, and there was a continuous strange noise in Dostoyevsky's throat. When Strahov wanted to stand up and check, Dostoyev Ski suddenly fainted to the ground, his body was twitching non-stop, foaming at the mouth.

Dostoevsky suffered another epileptic fit from his overexcitement.

Dostoevsky was a severe epileptic, and Freud once described his personality traits as follows: "creative artist, neurotic, moralist and sinner."

Dostoevsky suffered from epilepsy since he was a child, his first attack was at the age of 9, and epilepsy has never left him since then.As the attacks became more and more frequent, at the age of 39 Dostoevsky began to record each attack, until his death at the age of 59, a total of 102 attacks.

Freud once used the method of psychoanalysis to analyze Dostoevsky's epilepsy. He believed that the disease was not caused by physical factors, but by psychological reasons. Guilt and guilt.

Freud believed that Dostoevsky had an "Oedipus complex". As mentioned earlier, this is a kind of Oedipus psychology.Dostoevsky's father was an alcoholic, and it is said that he often beat and scolded him when he was drunk, but some people said that the father and son had a good relationship, but the specific circumstances are unknown.

At the age of 18, Dostoevsky's father died suddenly. After a brief ecstasy in his heart, a strong sense of guilt and guilt struck him, which also made his epilepsy more and more severe.Of course, these are Freud's conjectures.

Subsequently, many scholars and medical experts denied this statement. They believed that Dostoevsky's epilepsy was not a purely psychological symptom, but caused by physiological reasons-brain damage or family inheritance.

The cause of Dostoevsky's father's death is unknown. There are rumors that he beat and scolded his serfs after drinking, and was drowned with vodka by the other party. Some people said that he died of natural causes, but later evidence showed that he died of epilepsy. attack.Dostoyevsky apparently inherited the disorder, and died of a seizure.

Dostoevsky suffered from epilepsy all his life. It can be seen from his works that Myshkin in "The Idiot" and Smerdyakov in "The Brothers Karamazov" both suffer from epilepsy. He has epilepsy, which shows how deeply this disease has affected him.Of course, he also got a certain benefit from epilepsy, that is, whenever he was mentally disturbed by epileptic seizures, his inspiration appeared like a fountain. He also wrote in a letter to his brother: "Every time I used to When I go through this nervous disorder, I use it to write; I write more and write better than usual in that state."

In fact, what Dostoevsky suffered from was a complication of epilepsy, known as "hypergraphia", which is one of the reasons why he became a prolific writer. He wrote nineteen works in his life, And left a lot of notes, diaries and letters.Hyperwrites have a constant and exuberant urge to write.According to the clinical cases of psychiatrists, many patients bring one or two thick notebooks with them every time they come to see a doctor, which are densely filled with words, and some patients express themselves by drawing pictures.

NO.2: A soul wandering between elegance and depression - Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf, a British female writer, critic, and one of the representatives of stream-of-consciousness novels. "A Spot on the Wall" is her first typical stream-of-consciousness work, and her most famous novels include "Mrs. Dalloway", "Lighthouse Tour", and "Jacob's Room".

In 1934, a simple and honest English village woman found a job as a maid, and the hostess was Virginia Woolf, who was over [-] years old. On the first day of work, the maid was terrified .While she was cleaning the kitchen, she clearly heard conversations in the upstairs bathroom, as if several people were having a lively discussion, but she knew very well that she and Virginia Woolf were the only ones in the room.So, the frightened maid quietly went up the stairs and found that there was indeed only the mistress herself in the bathroom.

Later, the maid got used to Virginia Woolf talking to herself, and she found that when Woolf was depressed, she would go into the kitchen and sit down alone, and then forgot what to say; Slow, contemplative, she was so absorbed in thinking that she couldn't extricate herself, so that she often bumped into a tree while walking.

One afternoon seven years later, the maid saw Woolf going out, but she didn't come back until dinner. When her husband walked into her room, he found two suicide notes on the table.Her body was found by the river a few weeks later.The police found many stones in her pockets, so it is speculated that she committed suicide.

Woolf's suicide note was written to her husband, and the letter was full of affection and pain: My most beloved:
I'm sure I'm going to get sick again and I don't think we can take this horrible experience again.And this time, I couldn't recover.I've started having auditory hallucinations and can't concentrate.So, I'm going to do the best thing I can.You have given me the most unparalleled happiness, and you have been impeccable in every way.Until this terrible disease came, I didn't think two people were happier than we were.I can't take it anymore.I know I'm ruining your life and you're fine without me.I know you will.See, I can't even write this properly.I can't read it.What I want to say is that all the happiness in my life is because of you.You have been unreservedly patient and considerate to me.I would say that everyone knows this.If anyone can save me, it must be you.Everything is gone from me except my belief in you.I can't keep eating away at your life.

I believe that no one can be happier than what we have ever had.

What disease was Virginia Woolf talking about in her suicide note?Let this elegant writer choose death as a relief.It turned out that Woolf was suffering from "manic-depressive disorder."

Manic-depressive disorder, also known as bipolar disorder or bipolar disorder, is a mental disorder characterized by abnormal high or low emotions. The main manifestations can be intermittent and repeated attacks in the same patient, or it can be repeated in one state, which is periodic and remittable. The mental activity of patients in the intermittent period is completely normal, and generally does not show personality defects.

To understand Woolf’s symptoms, we need to start with her complex family background. She comes from a family of nine, and two groups of children of different ages and personalities often have conflicts and quarrels. Two of Woolf’s half-fathers Her brother hurt her the most.

After her mother's death in 1895, Woolf's first mental breakdown stemmed from the sexual assault of her two brothers.Later, she mentioned this incident in her autobiography "The Moment of Existence". This incident had a very profound impact on her, causing severe mental trauma, which was directly related to her future suicide.Because of this trauma, Woolf hated and feared sex life as an adult, let alone having children, and her attachment to the same sex even became the center of gravity in her emotional world.

Virginia Woolf's parents passed away one after another, which dealt a great blow to her. Coupled with the unfortunate experiences in her life, she was as sensitive as a mimosa and as fragile as glass. In the eyes of outsiders, she was so Elegant and full of nervousness, he walks between elegance and madness all his life.

Someone once described her like this: "Her memory has two secret sides—one is clear and the other is dark; one is cold and the other is warm; one is creation and the other is destruction; fire."

Virginia Woolf suffered four nervous breakdowns in her lifetime:
In 1895, her mother's death triggered her first seizure, when she was 13 years old; in 1904, her father's death caused Woolf another nervous breakdown, and she jumped from a window and fell seriously injured; again in 1913 She had a seizure, and she took more than 100 sleeping pills, but fortunately, she was rescued in time; in 1941, Woolf suffered a mental breakdown for the last time, and this time she passed away forever.

In his autobiography, Leonard Woolf recalled his wife's episodes: "During the manic phases she would be extremely excited; , she once told me that during her second episode she heard the birds in the garden outside the window singing in Greek, and that during the manic phase she would be rough with the nurses... During the depressive phase, her thoughts and emotions were not the same as The manic phase is the exact opposite. She is so deeply depressed and hopeless that she says little, refuses to eat, refuses to believe that she is sick, insists that her current state is entirely her own fault, and at worst, attempts suicide. "

Virginia Woolf wandered between elegance and madness in her life. She was so elegant and quiet in normal times, but she was a different person when she was ill.In the end, this excellent writer was still unable to resist the erosion of the disease, and decided to bid farewell to the painful world.

NO.3: Curse of Family Suicide - Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway, a well-known American writer and journalist, is considered to be one of the most famous novelists in the 20th century, and a representative figure among American "lost generation" writers. All showed confusion and hesitation. In 1953, he won the Pulitzer Prize for "The Old Man and the Sea", which won him the Nobel Prize in Literature the following year.He committed suicide at home in his later years. Like other members of his family, he failed to escape the tragic fate of suicide.

Hemingway and Virginia Woolf suffered from the same mental illness—manic depression, and their experiences were very similar. They were tortured by the illness, and finally ended their lives because they could not bear the illness.

Hemingway's life can be described as ill-fated. He experienced two plane crashes in the same year, the second of which was the most seriously injured. Fortunately, he survived the catastrophe, but his physical condition went from bad to worse.What's more frightening is that his mental state began to have problems. This well-respected writer often behaved conceited, aggressive, perverse, and even treated his wife roughly, just like a different person.

Hemingway began to drink without restraint, which also made more diseases find him.As Hemingway's mental condition deteriorated, he suffered from frequent insomnia and was plagued by nightmares; he once fiddled with a rifle in front of his friends and imitated suicide scenes more than once, horrifying the people present.At the same time, paranoia began to appear more and more frequently. He thought that the government was coming to arrest him, his home was bugged, and everything was under the watchful eyes of others; Confiscated by Troy's government; he even thinks friends and family are going to murder him...

Not only Hemingway, but also his family were tortured, so his wife had to send him to a famous psychiatric clinic, and in order to hide the truth, he also needed to receive psychological treatment secretly.Afterwards, doctors diagnosed Hemingway's illness as manic-depressive.

In the following time, Hemingway received treatment. Although the electric shock therapy relieved the condition, it brought more serious side effects, that is, the patient lost part of his memory, which was undoubtedly fatal for a writer. hit.Hemingway once wrote to a friend: "These doctors who do electrotherapy don't understand writers... They ruined my brain, erased my memory as a life asset, and therefore ruined my career. What is the point of doing this?"

Hemingway, who has lost his ability to write, is heading towards hell step by step. At the age of 60, he looks like an octogenarian.Finally, one morning in 1961, at their home in Idaho, a crisp gunshot woke up his wife and the little birds on the tree. Hemingway, a great writer of a generation, committed suicide at the age of 62.

Uncover the tragic fate of the Hemingway family.

Hemingway suffered from manic-depressive disorder, a mental illness that has been shown to be hereditary, and the Hemingway family did not escape the fate of suicide.

When Hemingway was 28 years old, his father committed suicide; his sister Ursula also chose to commit suicide because of suffering from cancer and depression; ten years later, Hemingway's only brother Lester shot himself after amputation due to diabetes Hemingway's granddaughter Margot also suffered from severe manic depression due to drug abuse, and died mysteriously 35 years after Hemingway swallowed a gun to commit suicide. The relevant departments finally determined that Margot died of suicide.

Among other members of Hemingway's family, they were more or less plagued by mental illness.The suicide curse of the Hemingway family lasted for four full generations. It was not until decades later that his granddaughter Marielle Hemingway broke the curse. She was a Hollywood actress who ended the curse with a positive and enthusiastic lifestyle.However, the process of breaking the spell was not easy. Mariel told the media that she survived through long-term yoga and meditation.Indeed, her grandfather committed suicide, her parents were drinking alcohol, her sister took drugs, and her husband suffered from brain cancer. These series of blows all predicted that Mariel would repeat the same mistakes, but she finally defeated the curse.

根据一项统计显示：作家患躁郁症的概率比普通人高出10至20倍，患忧郁症的概率比普通人高出8至10倍，而自杀的概率更比普通人高出18倍。

There are many other writers suffering from bipolar disorder like Woolf and Hemingway, such as Balzac, Charles Dickens, Gogol, Gorky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Zola, etc., Behind the halo of these geniuses, all endured inhuman torture.Sometimes it is really fortunate that it is better to be an ordinary person.

NO.4: Insane Nobel Laureate Economist - John Nash
John Forbes Nash, American mathematician, former MIT assistant professor, mainly researches game theory, differential geometry and partial differential equations. In 1994, he shared the Nobel Prize in Economics with two other game theorists, John C. Harsani and Reinhard Selten.

This genius economist also failed to escape the infestation of mental illness. Nash was introverted and withdrawn since he was a child. He was born in a middle-class family and received a good education. However, Nash showed a withdrawn temperament when he was very young. He is always buried in a book or playing alone, and rarely plays with other children.

After college, Nash's mathematical talent began to show. In 1948, Nash, a junior, was admitted to Harvard, Princeton, Chicago, and the University of Michigan at the same time, but Nash finally chose the more enthusiastic Princeton University.

In 1950, 22-year-old Nash submitted a doctoral thesis with only 27 pages, with the theme of non-cooperative games (Non-cooperative Games), which proposed an important concept, which was later called "Nash Equilibrium" game theory, which also laid the foundation for him to win the Nobel Prize in Economics decades later.

Nash's insanity happened after he got married, and the true side of this "lonely genius" began to be revealed gradually. His withdrawn, arrogant, indifferent, and weird side were fully exposed. The arrogance of the genius made him far away from ordinary people. In his own hidden world, he can't understand and has no intention of intervening in worldly affairs.

However, Nash seemed to enjoy this state of life very much. At a New Year's dinner, Nash was dressed as a baby, which stunned everyone.Only two weeks later, he took a copy of the New York Times and declared to the professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that he was communicating with mysterious forces from the universe through this newspaper, and that he was the only one in the world who could decipher alien codes. .

Mental illness is a family. At that time, someone believed it and chatted with Nash. "Why are you so sure the information is from aliens?"

"The perception of supernatural beings is like the spiritual thought in mathematics. There is no reason or aura." Nash replied.

When Nash was 30 years old, he won a tenured position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His wife became pregnant and gave birth to a son for him shortly thereafter. However, Nash's illness became more serious. of schizophrenia.Nash survived those difficult years in the painful treatment and relapse process.

At that time, someone saw him walking barefoot on the street, with dull eyes, unkempt face and unshaven beard. People who saw him ran away one after another. No one believed that he was a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Nash also missed many awards because of schizophrenia, and was once forgotten by the academic circle.

A few years later, his wife finally couldn't bear Nash and chose to divorce. However, she still loved her husband deeply and never remarried for the rest of her life.After more than 30 years of treatment, Nash moved to several psychiatric hospitals, and his condition gradually stabilized.

A well-known film "A Beautiful Mind" is based on the real and touching stories of John Nash and his wife Alicia (divorced, but remarried in 2001) and friends and colleagues in Princeton, recreating the legend of Nash And crazy life course.The film was released in 2001 and was nominated for 8 Oscars in one fell swoop.Readers who are interested in Nash's experience may wish to take a look.

NO.5: Lost to the genius statesman with epilepsy - Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar, also known as Julius Caesar, was an outstanding military commander and statesman at the end of the Roman Republic.Caesar was born in a noble family and was brave and good at fighting. He conquered the entire territory of Gaul (now France) in just 8 years, and also attacked Germany and Britain.In 49 BC, he led an army to occupy Rome, defeated Pompey, consolidated all powers, and implemented a dictatorship.

Caesar was stabbed to death in 44 BC at the age of 58. However, there is a new theory recently that Caesar was not stabbed to death, but died of suicide.

For a long time, people have never doubted the murder of Caesar, which can be regarded as the most famous "Assassination of the Head of State" in Western history.However, according to the British "Times" report, Italian crime research expert Lucino Garofano and Harvard Medical School Professor Buzztakin and others recently studied a large amount of historical data and used computer programs to simulate 2000 years of crimes. After the previous assassination scene, it was concluded that Caesar committed suicide.

In order to shoot a film about Julius Caesar and to learn more about the inside story and truth of the most famous murder case in history, a film and television company in London hired criminal research expert Lucino Garofano to investigate the incident. .According to historical records, about 3 hours after Caesar was stabbed, his body was taken away by his servants. A doctor named Antistius conducted an autopsy on him. According to the autopsy report, there were 23 scars on Caesar's body. A knife wound, only the last knife is fatal.The film and television company restored the scene at that time through computer simulation, and analyzed that there were about 5 to 10 assailants who attacked Caesar.

Garofano believes that there are great "doubts" about Caesar's death: first, Caesar was a shrewd political genius, why did he intentionally provoke the enemy at the Senate meeting and caused his death; second, since he chose to provoke the enemy, why And suddenly fired all the bodyguards.

With the above doubts, Garofano went to Harvard Medical School in the United States, discussed with the world's top psychiatrist Professor Harold Butztakin, and came to the inference that Caesar committed suicide.As the shrewdest and wisest statesman and military strategist in the world at that time, Caesar would never have been murdered so easily. They agreed that Caesar himself "planned" his own murder, that is to say, he chose to commit suicide .

When talking about the cause of Caesar's death, psychiatrist Buztakin believed that health problems led to his suicide.Caesar was 58 years old when he died. According to the human life expectancy at that time, he was already a standard old man.In addition, through investigation, they found that Caesar had suffered from severe temporal lobe epilepsy at that time. Whenever an attack occurred, the patient would forget everything and even become incontinent.

This is also in line with the disrespectful behavior of Caesar sitting on the chair when the members of the Senate awarded the honor to Caesar. Maybe he happened to have an epileptic seizure, lost consciousness and could not stand up, or it was inconvenient to get up due to incontinence .You know, this is the second time Caesar has had an epileptic seizure. He also had an epileptic seizure on the battlefield that year, which caused Caesar a lot of pain.

Shakespeare also deliberately showed this scene in historical dramas: when Caesar ignored the honors of the Senate members, no one expressed dissatisfaction, but when Caesar regained consciousness after the incident, he immediately went home, took off his clothes, and roared He said that he would cut his throat to anyone who wanted to cut it.Caesar believed that his disrespectful behavior was entirely due to the disease. Although he did not know that he had epilepsy at the time, he knew very well that once the disease occurred, he would immediately feel dizzy, go into shock in his hands and feet, and finally lose consciousness completely.

Buztakin analyzed: "This is enough reason for a proud mind to choose suicide. Would a person like him prefer to die in a coma after a seizure or to die consciously? And use death as a last resort against political enemies? Caesar is still Caesar, and he will not spare death."

Caesar, who was suffering from illness, had actually arranged everything, even death, and even calculated the posthumous glory that the assassination event would bring to him. "And for those noble members who conspired to assassinate Caesar, they got nothing. When these people chose to assassinate Caesar in the Senate, it was equivalent to signing their own execution papers. And, Caesar was in Six months before he was assassinated, he revised his will and selected his nephew Octavian as the Roman consul. In Caesar's will, he also requested that his private wealth be divided equally among the citizens of Rome. After this 'touching testament', the emotions of the Roman citizens attending the funeral suddenly turned from mourning to anger, they smashed tables, threw chairs, and expressed their grief with the craziest emotions."

Although the above are the conjectures of criminal research experts Lucino Garofano and Professor Harold Butztakin, which have not been finally confirmed, it can be inferred that Caesar was indeed suffering from epilepsy at that time. For a political commander, it is indeed a painful thing.

NO.6: The lonely and autistic geniuses - Newton, Einstein

Sir Isaac Newton, President of the Royal Society, a famous British physicist, in his paper "Laws of Nature" published in 1687, he described the universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, which laid the foundation for the following three A scientific view of the physical world for centuries and has become the foundational theory of modern engineering.

Einstein, a Jewish physicist, proposed the photon hypothesis in 1905 and successfully explained the photoelectric effect, for which he won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1905, he created the special theory of relativity. In 1915 he created the general theory of relativity.

Einstein laid the theoretical foundation for the development of nuclear energy, created a new era of modern science in terms of modern science and technology and its wide application, and is recognized as the greatest physicist since Galileo and Newton.

Autism, also known as autism, also known as Asperger's syndrome, is clinically manifested as strange behavior, but it does not mean that the patient's ability is low.On the contrary, studies have found that many geniuses in history, such as Newton, Einstein, Van Gogh, Beethoven, Mozart, Andersen, etc., have varying degrees of autism.

Autistic patients are not good at interacting with others and have great problems in social skills and communication. Therefore, they are often regarded as "outliers". Their strange behavior and surprising speech are not accepted by ordinary people.

Research has shown that Einstein showed signs of autism at an early age.When he was very young, Einstein behaved as a loner, and when he was 7 years old, he began to say some words that others could not understand.

Newton also has such characteristics, he is not good at speaking, and only concentrates on his work, so that he often forgets to eat.Because he didn't socialize with others, Newton had very few friends, and even so, he was very indifferent to the few friends he had.Newton had a weird temper and weird behavior. Even if no one listened to his speech, he would keep talking to an empty room. At the age of 50, he developed symptoms of psychosis.

Researchers at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford believe that genius scientists like Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein were suffering from such disorders due to their high IQs, impatience with people with lower IQs, and passion for a purpose in life and self-absorbed, which creates personal isolation and difficulty.This is not difficult to understand. In life, for those who can't understand our words anyway, we really don't bother to talk to them.

Researchers say autism isn't just negative, it makes people more creative, focused, persistent and passionate about their work.

Authoritative scientists from the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford pointed out after a careful study of the characters of Newton and Einstein: "Newton's condition is a typical Aaron syndrome. He is usually reticent, concentrates on his work, and often forgets to eat. .Originally he didn’t have many friends, but he still showed indifference to them and even lost his temper with them.”

Professor Baron Cohen of Cambridge University said that Einstein was also very socially unsocial, and when he was a child, he often compulsively repeated some words and phrases from textbooks.Although Einstein had more friends than Newton, Professor Baron Cohen still believed that he suffered from Alfred's syndrome to varying degrees.

NO.7: Insane "madman" - Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, a famous German philosopher and the founder of modern Western philosophy, is one of the greatest thinkers and philosophers in modern times with both the profound thoughts of a philosopher and the romantic temperament of a poet and artist .Before studying philosophy, Nietzsche was a philologist. At the age of 24, he became a professor of classical philology in the German-speaking area of ​​the University of Basel in Switzerland. He resigned in 1879 due to health problems. He suffered from mental illness until his death.

In 1887, Nietzsche's illness worsened, his sense of emptiness made him hysterical, he began to cut off friends, and he regarded his mother and sister as "complete hell machines".Nietzsche once said: "I am not a man, I am dynamite!" In the autumn of 1888, Nietzsche uttered the classic "God is dead!"

In 1889, Nietzsche was completely insane. On January 1, Nietzsche desperately hugged the neck of a horse being whipped by a groom in the square of Turin, Italy, and since then he suffered from mental illness.Later, the landlord found Nietzsche lying on the square and took him home.That night, Nietzsche sang, danced, and played the piano non-stop, making the tenants unable to sleep.Later, the landlord also observed through the keyhole that Nietzsche often danced some strange dances naked in the house.

Nietzsche often mailed some crazy postcards, but most of them were confiscated by the post office in Turin. Only a few were sent out. There was a postcard to an old friend that said "I just got shot by all the anti-Semites".

Nietzsche's crazy behavior became more and more frequent. He often talked nonsense and sometimes sang loudly, which made the people around him at a loss. My friends are very "horrified".

In the end, Nietzsche was admitted to a psychiatric clinic, and the expert wrote on the hospitalization form: "Friedrich Nietzsche, Professor of Basel, age 23, 1866, infected with syphilis."

The question of whether Nietzsche was insane has been debated endlessly. Some people think that he is playing crazy, while others think that he is suffering from paralytic dementia due to cranial nerve damage caused by syphilis.

Dr. Leonard Sachs once carefully studied Nietzsche's 1889 medical records and letters at that time, and believed that Nietzsche did not suffer from venereal diseases. He said: "Niezsche did not have these (syphilis) symptoms, his facial expressions were still flexible, and his reactions were normal. He trembled from time to time, and his handwriting after the onset was at least as clear as it was in the years before the onset, and most importantly, his speech was still fluent." In the end, Dr. Sachs boldly speculated that what caused Nietzsche's mental disorder was a chronic brain tumor.

It is not known whether Nietzsche suffered from syphilis, but he did suffer from the disease, and in another sense, his achievements also benefited from the disease.Thomas Mann once said: "His destiny is his genius. However, his genius has another name: disease." Freud also believed that illness was Nietzsche's destiny. He pointed out: "Nietzsche The degree to which self-reflection has been achieved has never been seen before or since... The most basic factor must be added: the role played by paralytic dementia in Nietzsche's life. Paralytic dementia formed a process of loosening which enabled him to see through Various levels, and recognize the most basic intuition, to achieve extraordinary achievements." Adler also believes that people with paralytic dementia may have extraordinary achievements.

After Nietzsche was admitted to a mental hospital, he was often upset, his handwriting trembled when he wrote, and he kept gesturing and making strange expressions when speaking.In the first five months, he was very emotional and often did crazy things, such as smearing with feces indiscriminately, drinking his own urine, screaming loudly, and occasionally having paranoia and auditory hallucinations... But then his performance gradually stabilized, and it seemed It is no different from a normal person, but doctors believe that the chances of Nietzsche's recovery are slim.

In March of the following year, Nietzsche was allowed to leave the hospital because his condition gradually stabilized. Since then, he has been taken care of by his mother until his mother passed away in 3. Nietzsche was taken care of by his sister Elizabeth until his death.

From the beginning of 1894, Nietzsche rarely went out. In 1895, he began to show signs of physical paralysis.A good friend recalled the scene when he visited Nietzsche for the last time: he squatted halfway in the corner, as if he hoped not to be disturbed, but before he had shown a very excited look, making noise and shouting. On August 1900, 8, Nietzsche died of a stroke.

(End of this chapter)