Influence of Mental Illness on Modern Physics

jrich,

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">I am not claiming all highly creative people are mentally ill.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I'd rather refer to "lateral thinking" instead of "mental illness". We could say the Einstein was mentally ill just by looking at his theories, but I do not think this is the case. I really believe that Einstein was a "lateral thinker", someone who was able to make complete different associations with known phenomena.

Jan,

Sounds good to me. It obviously works for Einstein. But what about Bohr? Illness is still probably the wrong word, but lateral thinker seems too kind (IMO), considering the damage he has done to science.

LB

Larry Burord,


<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><b>But what about Bohr? Illness is still probably the wrong word, but lateral thinker seems too kind (IMO), considering the damage he has done to science.</b><hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">.

Funny I don't see the damage. It may have been a somewhat erroneous turn but yet a valuable turn in the evolution of thinking and researching that which was beyond our observation at the time.

Further QM'st and alternative thinkers could make the same judgement about Einstein.



"Imagination is more important than Knowledge" -- Albert Einstien

Larry, Tom,

One has to wonder why Bohr would think his interpretation was at all reasonable and why those who followed him were so many. This leads me to wonder whether the true believers really perceived their irrationality. Of course, for the reasons Tom states, its difficult to know how many really "drank the Kool-Aid" or simply went along and perhaps became victims of a sort of Helsinki syndrome.


JR

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Mac</i>
<br />Further QM'st and alternative thinkers could make the same judgement about Einstein.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Not so. About GR perhaps, but not about the man. Einstein dedicated himself to truth-finding too, while Bohr did not. As a result, Einstein was not a happy man toward the end. Hence his last famous quote: "I consider it quite possible that physics cannot be based on the field concept, i.e., on continuous structures. In that case, nothing remains of my entire castle in the air, gravitation theory included, [and of] the rest of modern physics." – Albert Einstein in letter to Besso (1954).

Opening one's mind to the possibility that our own ideas might be erroneous is not assured of bringing happiness, but is essential in any quest for truth. -|Tom|-

LB,

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">...but lateral thinker seems too kind (IMO), considering the damage he has done to science.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Perhaps, but then again, calling an expert physicist a "nutter" doesn't improve relations either. But I get your point, some damage has been done, especially by relativity.