[naturalist.atheist]

Originally Posted by davidm

Insofar as any of these people could be said to be "mentally ill" (and let's not forget that less than fifty years ago, gay people were all held to be mentally ill!), when they were ill, they achieved nothing. Van Gogh could not paint or do anything during his worst episodes. Hemingway, when he was "mentally ill" did not write, and ended up killing himself. I have no idea why the other people are even included on the list. Isaac Newton was mentally ill? Really?

Mental illness, by and large, is a socio-political category made up to stigmatize people we don't like. OTOH, there are objective brain dysfunctions, from injury for example. And there are people who have difficulty coping with the real world; often they are stigmatized as mentally ill, but really, they may be wholly sane and their "ill" response is a response to world that is insanely put together. As was famously said of Van Gogh: He was was suicided by society.

But most of these people went about their business and created works of brilliance which were recognized in their life times as brilliant. They didn't try to convince the world they were brilliant by idiotic repetition of incoherent nonsense.

Mental illness can be overlooked if there is genius involved but if all it does is prance in the public square spouting gibberish then it needs help.