- charles darwin suffered from panic disorder and agoraphobia that left him a socially crippled recluse; and it was this condition that made it possible for the 'origin of species' to become his all consuming passion. we owe the theory of evolution to his illness. (russ noyes, university of iowa college of medicine)
- the great canadian pianist glenn gould was not only agoraphobic but a hypochondriac and unable to form personal relationships or express emotion except in music. (peter otswald in "glenn gould: the ecstasy and tragedy")
- sir isaac newton was a paranoid anti-social recluse who spent most of his 35 years at trinity college alone in his study even refusing to have dinner in the great hall; and if it were not for sir edmund halley, philosophae naturalis principia mathematica might have just collected dust as it had for 20 years before halley discovered it and caused it to be published.
- what would you think if a gaunt pale-skinned loner next door were obsessed with your ten-year-old daughter; stared at her from his window as she played, took nude pictures of her, wrote letters and poems to her, took her on picnics, and spent hours sitting on his couch with her? charles dodgson did all of that with little alice liddell whom he eventually immortalized in his now famous book about "wonderland" using the pseudonym "lewis carroll".
Genius is abnormal by definition
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