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Chess and mental illness
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Just being able to tune into a task that requires mental effort probably seems weird to a lot of Americans. The ability to get so absorbed is not mental illness; however, there is a kind of loop - someone mentioned a link between introversion and depression. Those of us who can amuse ourselves mentally probably feel less driven to leave the house, but not getting out can feed depression.
In the USA it can seem slightly abnormal to choose mentally challenging pastimes instead of gormlessly ogling the box - IMO we do not have a great study ethic anymore and it affects competitiveness.
Everything in moderation, including moderation ...
Leave... The House?!? Whatever for, we have the internets.. Sunlight is soo 20th century..
Turn on, Tune in, Drop out..
CBA wrote:
And Fischer was born, or at least raised, a little odd from the start before becoming increasingly paranoid and eventually doolally (this is a medical term, trust me).
It's a town in India (correct spelling Deolali) where there used to be a camp for British soldiers, so boring and psychologically unpleasant that it became notorious for men losing their minds - hence "going doolally".
I am beginning to think that I have written so many chess stories that theres always one which relates to any thread possible...
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/fun-with-chess/where-chessplayers-belong
Aug 17, 2012
0
#27
Not sure if this was already mentioned, but dont forget Torre Repeto, also went crazy.
The Luzhin (sp?) Defense is a good movie based on a chess player who goes mad
chesspooljuly13 wrote:
The Luzhin (sp?) Defense is a good movie based on a chess player who goes mad
That was based on the book, that was based on a real GM who was editor of Chess Life mag in the 1930s. He was nuts before he started playing chess, however. In the book, his defense didn't work.
The ending of the movie's kind of cool, though I don't know if that'd be allowed in a real championship. It is a good movie, though; haven't read the book but think it was written by a Russian
Thanks for info!
http://www.randomhouse.com/book/119457/the-luzhin-defense-by-vladimir-nabokov/ Here's a little about it. Movies never do books justice.
chesspooljuly13 wrote:
Anyone want to venture a comment on whether the two are related? I read somewhere that the "highs" and "lows" a chess player experiences during a game, combined with the anxiety, tension and stress of high-level chess, can exacerbate or bring to the surface an existing mental illness but is unlikely to be the cause. I know of three world-class chess players thought to have suffered from mental illness - Morphy, Rubinstein and Fischer, but there are probably more
This depends entirely on the kind of mental illness for which we are speaking. You can't just encapsulate all mental illness into one tiny category.
I would say that if the mental illness was an anxiety disorder, or triggered or exasperated by anxiety, then absolutely!
Great point, CaptainPike; I suppose mental illnesses, like physical illnesses, can be quite varied, even though they affect one organ of the body
@Conflagration_Planet: Thanks; only exception I can think of is "Jaws." I actually thought the movie (1975) was better than Peter Benchley's book, though I liked the book also
chesspooljuly13 wrote:
@Conflagration_Planet: Thanks; only exception I can think of is "Jaws." I actually thought the movie (1975) was better than Peter Benchley's book, though I liked the book also
Never read the book, though the movie was good. Has your home page suddenly changed? I guess they got the themes fixed.
Don't think so, but I'm on a cell phone right now. It may look different on a desktop.
Okay. :)
Chess cannot cause mental illness. Their causes are generally a combination of genetic and environmental factors, with the environmental factors being in place from a very early age (though the illness itself may not begin to manifest itself until the person is well into their teens, or even adulthood).
Could people with mental illness be drawn toward chess? Possibly, though to state it so simply is to engage in to much reductionism to arrive at any meaningful answer. "Mental illness" itself is a term that encompasses a very broad range of disorders.
Can the stress of high level chess bring about mental illness? In a sense, yes: it doesn't cause it, but the stress itself (not chess specific stress, but high levels of prolonged stress in general) may lead an underlying mental illness to surface; or act as the trigger that sets the tinder aflame.
Was Fischer mentally ill? I think he was. His behavior during and after his first match with Spassky was bizarre enough to be consistent with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.
Its an interesting subject as there has long been believed a link, of some kind, to exist between genius and mental illness. I don't think that particular debate has been concluded definitively.
As an aside, last fall I suffered a severe skull fracture (no bleeding into the brain, fortunately) and concussion, and developed post concussoin syndrome. In June my doctor suggested puzzle solving as a kind of therapy, to stimulate the necessary parts of the brain and encourage healing.
As I'd played chess since I was a kid, and had once upon a time gone through a few puzzle books during a study phase, that suggestion led me back to tactics study and active chess play, after an 8 year abstinance from the game.
this thread is making me crazy ▬ more than chess ever has.