Re: JSH: What if no one believes you?

marcus_b wrote:
On Feb 15, 3:09 pm, Gib Bogle <bo...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Here is an interesting question: Is JSH's mental problem biological
(faulty wiring, bad brain chemicals) or environmental (bad upbringing)?

There's nothing wrong with his genetics or 'wiring'.
My theory is that he got into some very bad habits
when he was quite young - he took standardized tests,
he did well, he was sent to a gifted kids summer camp
at Duke University, and it went to his head. He got in
the habit of thinking he was a boy genius and that he
didn't have to work hard to learn the same stuff that
other kids did; that he had been identified as a
Superior Being - he got in the habit too of looking
down on everyone else - he thinks that stupid
academic mathematicians are so wrapped up in their
elaborate theories that they have lost touch with
the simple obvious ideas, and that he is uniquely
able to go right to the heart of problems and find
those simple ideas because, well, because he has
been certified as a Boy Genius.

So was it 'bad upbringing'? I wouldn't blame
his parents who were probably perfectly nice folks
who encouraged him to think he was a special guy -
that's what parents do, and should - but to some
extent, by adolescence, we are bringing up ourselves,
and he got into to some very bad mental habits,
partly out of laziness and partly out of the
"the world owes me a living" kind of thinking.

The SWJPAM episode is highly indicative of this.
He got a paper "accepted" (for a few hours) - the
editor told him it "passed peer review" - very
unlikely, this was almost certainly a stupid clerical
error - but he felt horribly cheated when the editor
yanked it, and of course he blamed everyone but
himself. IT PASSED PEER REVIEW!!! UNFAIR, UNFAIR,
UNFAIR! And he blamed mathematicians at large for
not giving him his due, like when he was a kid and
got to go to Duke summer camp (as he deserved).

So it's not genetic - no evidence for that - it's
not upbringing exactly - there is no one to blame
for his present state except himself.

Such is my view.

The reason I'm not convinced that environment (bad habits learned etc.) is a sufficient explanation is that many people have the same experience in childhood of being made to believe that they are special, gifted etc., but in most cases subsequent experience and reflection lead to an adjustment to reality. In JSH's case the adjustment to reality hasn't taken place. This is where something about his nature comes into play. In my view.

Not to suggest an equivalence, there could be some parallel with a certain type of extremely anti-social psychosis. Some psychopathic individuals have a brain chemistry that makes them very "low affect", i.e. they have very low response to normal stimuli, and require high stimulus to get a normal level of response. There is nothing inherently anti-social about this, but when it is combined with bad environmental factors (e.g. physical and/or emotional abuse as a child, lack of legal opportunities for stimulation) it can create an angry person dangerously lacking in empathy, and capable of torturing and murdering without compunction. The parallel I mean to illustrate is the combination of biology and environment needed to create this condition.

Here is an outstanding example of the phenomenon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Kuklinski
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: JSH: What if no one believes you?
    ... (faulty wiring, bad brain chemicals) ... My theory is that he got into some very bad habits ... not upbringing exactly - there is no one to blame ... The reason I'm not convinced that environment ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: JSH: What if no one believes you?
    ... My theory is that he got into some very bad habits ... not upbringing exactly - there is no one to blame ... even Harris had to see the sense of it. ... biology and environment needed to create this condition. ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: JSH: What if no one believes you?
    ... There's nothing wrong with his genetics or 'wiring'. ... My theory is that he got into some very bad habits ... he was sent to a gifted kids summer camp ... So was it 'bad upbringing'? ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: JSH: What if no one believes you?
    ... There's nothing wrong with his genetics or 'wiring'. ... My theory is that he got into some very bad habits ... So was it 'bad upbringing'? ... UNFAIR, UNFAIR, ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: JSH: What if no one believes you?
    ... or environmental (bad upbringing)? ... There's nothing wrong with his genetics or 'wiring'. ... My theory is that he got into some very bad habits ...   The SWJPAM episode is highly indicative of this. ...
    (sci.math)
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