In A First-Rate Madness, Nassir Ghaemi argues that psychiatric disorders were the making of some of the great world leaders
IT HAS become fashionable to talk up the positive side of mental illness, to explain the persistence of conditions such as severe depression in terms of the benefits they bring to the people who experience them. For example, the tendency of depressed people to ruminate – generally considered an undesirable trait because it fuels negative thinking – could actually deepen their understanding of their problems and enhance decision-making.
There is little empirical data to support this position at present, and its many…
