A curious <please share your thoughts/stories thread>, brought on by the mensa thread and other questions I’ve had lately.
I’ve run across a whole BUNCH of people in my lifetime with IQs that run from genious or slightly below genious level down to just REALLY, REALLY smart (130+ IQs).
In my experience, the more intelligent the person, the harder time they had dealing with life on an emotional level. I can imagine that if one were that smart, it could be hard to deal with we dullards.
What are some of your experiences/opinions on this?
No, I don’t have any emotional problems (I’m a genious! [I crack myself up innit]).
Well I’ve been a couple of top univesrtsities (long stiry) and in my experince the people who were exceptionally gifted were actually quite stable. That said one of my friends who was a partcularly promising physicist (unfortunately he was killed in a car accident whilst still at university ), though when he was older he was abvery well-balance person, we went to school together and at that time I would say he was not emotionally stable.
Do a search on Dabrowski’s overexcitabilities. I’m not convinced I believe it but I know a lot of people who do believe it. His theories revolve around people of very high intelligence and/or high creativity having a neurological difference due to an innate wiring issue. Yeesh, I’m tired and I don’t think I’m making much sense. Sick cat and now a vomiting kid. Can the day improve any?
I think there can be emotional challenges for exceptionally/profoundly gifted children. Leta Hollingsworth described the child of 160+ IQ as having one of the hardest situations to manage with regards to social stuff in school. It’s not universally true but there’s some truth in it for most kids at that level. I think adulthood is easier than childhood for these kids.
There’s also a strong correlation between profound giftedness in boys and learning disabilities such as ADHD and Aspergers syndrome. I think there’s a fair bit of stuff about the emotional challenges on Linda Silverman’s site and on the SENG site.
I suppose if you were identified as a genius you might get picked on, ostracized and generally tormented throughout your formative years (moreso than usual that is). Compound that with the fact that you would probably be fairly isolated because you may not have any equals/peers in your life as you come of age. I could imagine these factors conspiring to make some people a little emotionally reserved…
That being said, I think there should be a mention of the generally stupid having their own brand of emotional issues.
I’m hesitant to make sweeping generalizations about such a topic. Unless someone has access to a statistically compiled database of people with clinically diagnosed emotional disorders crossreferenced with their IQs, our data pool seems to consist of purely subjective anecdotal accounts.
I queried my inner cynic about this sort of idea, and he suggests that it’s largely a myth that many anti-intellectuals echo-chamber to feel good about. For that matter, so do many otherwise-intelligent (often extremely so, or simply emotionally vested in believing themselves extremely so) people also support it as a “get-out-of-responsibility free” card when acting immaturely, or simply as a more generalized feelgood point of self-narration. (That latter stemming from the really unfortunate tendency to view life’s sufferings as a collector’s edition character-building merit badge series, rather than a universal human problem–and wrinkly or smooth-brained, all sorts believe firmly in the merit badge side.)
I’ve definitely met some extremely intelligent people that had problems socializing and relating to people emotionally, but part of it is probably that those people stand out more than people who are equally intelligent but have good social skills.
I pretty well figure that adages like “There’s a thin line between genius and insanity” and “Sure, he’s a genius, but he can’t tie his shoe lace” are repeated by people who don’t want to feel inferior. In my experience, people who are really really smart are about as well-adjusted (whatever that means) as “average” people. Sure, there’s the misanthropic losers in the bunch, but I bet you’ll find at least as high a percentage iof them n the population with IQ’s less than 130 or so.
I don’t have any cites except my personal experience, but for every kid who suffered because of his/her high intelligence, I’ll bet there’s probably another one who got plenty of social strokes for it.
We all have our strengths and weaknesses. I have yet to meet a genius who does not have a weakness in another area, just like I have found the most charismatic and social person I know (who also happens to be very intelligent) to have emotional issues. Like Deadly said, anyone who falls under an extreme will be noticed and once you notice you pay attention to all characteristics.
Thank God someone doesn’t have it all! If I met the perfect person I think I would develop a serious inferiority complex.
Intelligent people may have a higher threshold of triviality–that is, they’re constitutionally unable to say things in a way that a person with a lower threshold of triviality can understand. This builds up a history of social frustration.
Perhaps you should’ve quit while you were…well… more or less even.
Personally, I doubt that there’s any direct correlation between intelligence and emotional problems. I do think, though, that the way some parents react to learning that their child is/may be a genius could very well cause some problems. Treating any child as “special” is bound to have consequences. Parents who “make allowances for junior, because he’s so gifted” are doing junior no favors, IMO.
I think the perception is due to the fact that gifted, but disturbed, people can still sometimes make significant contributions to society, and therefore gain public notice and even admiration, while disturbed people who are not gifted rarely do so.
“Personally, I doubt that there’s any direct correlation between intelligence and emotional problems. I do think, though, that the way some parents react to learning that their child is/may be a genius could very well cause some problems. Treating any child as “special” is bound to have consequences. Parents who “make allowances for junior, because he’s so gifted” are doing junior no favors, IMO.”
I agree. being identified as “gifted” at an early age did nothing for me except give my parents or teachers a reason to get on my ass whenever they felt I was performing below my “potential”. Probably one of the best things to happen to me was dad getting transfered to a town where the school system didn’t have a gifted program. IMHO, school is where a kids learn to develop social skills. You don’t learned them coralled with a small group of delicate brainiacs like Malcom in the Middle.
I believe that people who are very smart (like myself;) ) get bored or frustrated with a lot of the mundane things in life. It’s tough recognizing that your teacher is a boob or working with people unable to grasp rudimentary concepts. Add to that the expectations other people set on you (or you set on yourself) to accomplish something grand and it’s enough to make you wish to be struck dumb.
If someone has little else going on outside of academic or intellectual persuits, I imagine that could be very isolating - possibly leading to Evil-geniusism.
Anyhow, I never considered my self that smart. I’m just thankful there are a lot of stupids out there to pull down the curve.
I think it’s possible that gifted children could experience trouble as a consequence, although by no means certain. Being gifted can be similar to other developmental differences children have; growing faster than other kids, sexually maturing earlier, etc., and can be confusing or frustrating. For some kids the differences will be more profound than for others, and some will find themselves in more supportive environments than others. Not the sort of thing that’s going to cause problems all by itself, but perhaps a factor.
Thanks for the insight, for a few of you, remember this is the IMHO page. Also keep in mind that I said emotionally challenging meaning what the highly intelligent person themselves face, NOT damaged/troubled, etc. And since, as I describe below, my beloved boyfriend IS one of those with extremely high intelligence, I certainly am NOT one who has asked this because I am trying to make myself feel better about others’ high intellectual cababilities.
My boyfriend is one of those with extremely high intelligence. But like other guys I’ve dated who were way up on the IQ scale, they seem to find certain areas of the human emotional experience challenging and frustrating.
One of the most frustrating things for him is that what he learns in a nanosecond seems to take “normal” people forever. Sometimes, being patient for him is a struggle. But when it comes to matters of love, when we discuss emotional issues, what I inately understand seems to be hard for him to “get”.
That’s more the sort of thing I meant, NOT “gee all these geniouses [genioui? :D] belong on prozac”.
You’ve got two different things going on here. First of all, it IS frustrating to have to explain something that, to you, is obvious. Think of something that is easy for you to do. Imagine trying to explain it to someone who has far less experience or innate capability. Example: For some reason I find the intricacies of music incredibly difficult to understand. Beautiful, but difficult. People with large musical talent seem to just “get” things that I cannot fathom, even with much explanation. So, yes, he is frustrated. One of the challenges he has to face is explaining A, B, C, D… when he sees immediately from A to E.
Second, when it comes to discussing emotional issues: HE’S A GUY! Men of any intellectual level generally find it very, very difficult to do the “talking about feelings” thing. There have been studies suggesting that there are certain connections in the typical female brain that are simply not as strong in the male brain. They generally find it difficult to focus on what they’re feeling, let alone convert it into words. It has little or nothing to do with intelligence.
Justhink, is that you? I kid, I kid. You’re wrong, though. That’s like saying sprinters are constitutionally unable to walk.
When my IQ was tested it was 130+, and I was in the gifted program in grade school. I have no problems socializing with other folk, above and beyond what your normal guy would have.
"My boyfriend is one of those with extremely high intelligence. "
CanvasShoes
My husband is like that as well. Really high intelligence, really high lack of patience. One thing we found out, he can put that intelligence and logical thinking to understanding emotions and the thoughts behind that emotion and patience can be learned just like anything else. Its hard, but it can be done.
"Second, when it comes to discussing emotional issues: HE’S A GUY! " MLS
I dont think men are that different from women. I mean we are all human. I think men and women are taught from birth certain things (men = fix things, women = cook and not just these ex at face value, but the mentality behind these and similar ex) and with recognition and understanding things can be overcome, if its something you would want to overcome. Of course all this is IMHO.
I think that intelligence can spawn emotional problems, but only if that intelligence is narrow rather than broad. If you think that something is tougher for an intelligent person then that person is simply not that intelligent when doing stuff like that.
So if you are good at learning things, but not that good at relating to other people I wouldn’t call you intelligent. If you are good at some things, but bad at others then you are probably average.
), though when he was older he was abvery well-balance person, we went to school together and at that time I would say he was not emotionally stable.
What’d you say?
You’re wrong, though. That’s like saying sprinters are constitutionally unable to walk.