Fischers mental state

I've always disagreed with people when they've said that Fischer was mentally deranged, then i saw a photo of him wearing socks with sandals, but as he was 64, i will overlook this.

Fischer is said to be able to recall every move from every game he played. This may be a little exagerration, but I believe something close to this is true. I have heard stories of people who played him in a simul or a blitz game and saw him 10-15 years later and he would respond "yes, I remember you" and replay the moves of their game on a board.

That is an amazing feat, but it is likely also telling of a mental disorder. This is not to say that Fischer was crazy, but that his brain did not function in the normal working order. There have been psychological studies on memory that indicate that forgetting details of our lives is a normal coping mechanism -- if you remembered every detail that ever happened to you, it would be very hard on your normal function. I know there are times I wish I could remember things better, but it turns out that forgetting a good fraction of our lives is most likely our brain shielding itself from disaster.

I felt he was angry at the world for some reasons. 

  However, I felt he was the best chess player who ever lived.

well he was so good and he had won the championship and i think he got afraid someone would take the title away from him

I'm new to contributing to these forums, so please let me know if I cross the line anywhere. 

 I have often worn socks with sandals... not as comfortable as it looks but I've got a thing about people looking at my hairy toes...

Some of my best friends (and family) are americans, so please don't anyone take this wrong... 

I always thought some of his rantings were jusified. I think he went through an ordeal similar to what most canadian olymic competitors used to go through... huge expectations with next to zero support... I'd imagine it's easy to get disillusioned with the folks that you're representing in situations like that... easy for that disillusionment to turn into resentment... add to that an extremely analytical mind singlehandedly representing a superpower and defeating another superpower at the height of the cold war with all the CIA KGB shenanigans being rumored about ... and I can easily see the resentment leading into paranoia. All that to say that just because you're generally paranoid and think someone's out to get you doesn't mean you aren't clinically paranoid and right.

but then again, I don't purport to know that much about him and his life... this is just from the few tidbits that I read. 

 I have study Fischer's life for years. He was quite angry at the American government. He had every right to be as they siezed all his personal property after he refused to abide by thier unlawful order about not playing the return match against Spassky.They issued a warrant for his arrest that sent him into hiding abroad.
Also the American goverment spied on he and his mother for years as they thought she might be a soviet spy. 

Now he had some justification for his anger. However his attitude towards Jews was way over the top.

Was he crazy? I think not. Just a very brilliant angry man that was driven from his native country by the  American government. That by the way attempted no such prosecution of anybody else that defied thier stupid decree.

Fischer's last words were not of anger, not of the chess that he so loved , not of Jews , not of the American government that so wronged him!

His last spoken words were,

" Nothing soothes pain like the human touch."

My question is , was he talking directly to Gardar Sverrisson or was he talking to those in the spiritual realm he was about to enter?

Fischer despite his brilliance , his genius was after all a man.  He had faults as we all do. His problem was when he spoke the world listened but did not always understand and most often did not even care to try.

I salute him for his bravery, for his art, for his humanity.

I thank him for the pure joy that he gave me and  millions of chessplayers worldwide. Ah ,yes he gave us sorrow too. Sorrow for the loss of games that might have been. For greater display of the greatest chess mind that the universe ever viewed and likely ever will view. Google his last known game analysis of a game played recently in Iceland. He discovered quite easily a  beautifully missed combination that would have saved the game for the losing player. 

His critics would be better served if they researched his entire life instead of commenting only of his hateful rants against those that wronged him.--SIX

I totally agree with you. If you don't conform to other peoples principles of whats right or wrong, then your classed as insane. That doesn't excuse people for wearing socks with sandals though. But at least you can't see bare feet, i hate bare feet.

I am not a trained psychologist, just someone with experience in these matters. Here are my opinions. 

It looks like the thread is mingling two specifically different topics; Fischer's racism and Fischer's mental illness.

Even though blatant rascism is not politically correct, and in some jurisdictions might get you shot, it is not a mental illness. Low intelligence maybe, but not mental illness. And since Fischer was way off the chart in intelligence, I think we would have to say that his rascism was more of a sign of his paranoid delusions.

The issue of Fischer's mental illness should be diagnosed separately.

Going back to Fischer's trek to the World Championship, his paranoia was legendary. His mood swings were definately signs of bi-polarism and his general outlook was that of idiot savant or autistic savant. Here is a link to Autistic Savants: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autistic_savant

This was not the first time a World Chess Champion was mentally ill: Paul Morphy, I remember was found in a bathtub dead at 47, with a bunch of women's shoes encircling it.

What can we learn from Fischer: Well, if you have a mental illness, you can get help. Racism is not mental illness, it is just stupid.

I had a Mexican painter that did too. His nickname was Gordo. He had a foot condition that was really grossssssssssssss. He was mentally ill too. Ok, I accept that diagnosis.

I don't think he was mentally deranged. He knew what he was saying and why he was saying it. He was angry and virulent, and many of his statements were indefensible, but he wasn't crazy in the clinical definition.  At least, there's been no evidence to that fact.

I also believe him when said he remembered his games.  This isn't necessarily unusual. Many savants have this level of recognitive skill and there's no reason to suspect Fischer didn't possess this amazing quality.

"On September 1, 1992, Bobby Fischer came out of his 20 year retirement and gave a press conference in Serbia. He pulled out an order from the U.S. Treasury Department warning him that he would be violating U.N sanctions if he played Chess in Serbia. He spit on the order and now faces ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine if he returns to the U.S.

In addition, he must forfeit his $3.65 million to the U.S. Treasury and forfeit 10% of any match royalties earned. On September 30, Bobby Fischer began his rematch with Boris Spassky in Sveti Stefan,Serbia. The match was organized by banker Jedzimir Vasiljevic. On November 11, Fischer won the match with 10 wins, 5 losses, and 15 draws. He received $3.65 million for his winnings and Spassky received $1.5 million."

 Fischer really didn't knew what was happening in that time.He didn't knew for wars in Croatia(1991-1995) and in Bosnia(1992-1996),didn't knew for Serbs aggresors in Croatia and in Bosnia. Maybe this is not topic but I wanted say.Yugoslavia don't exist since 1992.Jugoslavia was Croatia,Bosnia and Herzegovina,Macedonia,Slovenia,Serbia,MonteNegro. Serbia always wanted "big serbia." Their quote is Serbia from Belgrade to Tokio". They attacked and did genocide in Croatia(1991-1995) and in Bosnia(1992-1996)

My two cents...

Some of the posts here make me think mental disorders are more wide spread than we previously thought. Fact is, we will never know how much of his hatred and disgust for certains races or people can be traced back to mental stability or simply flaws in his character. It can be fun to speculate, but nobody here knows.

You can decide Fischers rants are excusable due to mental defect if you want, you can hate him and bury his memory if it makes you happy, you can separate the chess player from the bigot and remember him piecemeal if it floats your boat.

But when someone comes on here and calls the hateful and disgusting things he said justified and perfectly called for, that is just sick. I don't care how many spy novels or conspiracy theories you've read, FIscher's comments went too far. His personal beliefs and agenda's were a blemish on him, and as a big Fischer fan.. I feel a little tainted by them too.

I agree

Socks +Sandals = nutjob

I say before we define anything, we start with Scabie (SK-B):

1.	Scabie	23 up, 6 down
	Scabies are paradisaic mites. They crawl into the warm, dark crevices of the body to borrow under the skin to lay their eggs. The eggs hatch in 3-5 days and then breed, move on, and borrow into other places on the body, to repeat the cycle. Scabies cause an infection under the skin which appear as bumps, red, pimple-like irritations, swelling, blisters, or puss-filled vesicles, that break when you scratch them. People scratch them because they itch intensely, most severely at night. The itch escalates at night because the mites are nocturnal. The itchy infection is caused by the mites’ saliva; night is when the mites feed. These mites can only live for a couple of days alone, but with a body as a host, one female mite can live up to a month, harvesting many generations in that time, living on after her. They spread from person to person usually from direct physical contact, though not necessarily. They can live in dust, bedding, towels, or clothing, just like any other mite, still transmittable for over three days. They are easily contracted from one person to another in crowded conditions, and more readily in less then hygienic of circumstances. Because of their love for dark crevices, they are often found in the slits between the toes, armpits, in the fold underneath the breast, navels, genitals, and buttocks. Because they are commonly found in the genitalia and buttocks they are considered Sexually Transmitted, though you could get them from bed hopping, regardless of sexual encounter -Or another person being present in the bed at that time at all. The condition is often compounded. The broken skin contracts other bacterial infections, most common, impetigo. Impetigo is a very contagious skin infection, said to be contracted more readily in those with scabies. It begins as tiny blisters, eventually bursting to reveal small wet patches of red skin that may ooze yellowish-brown pus. The bursts weep fluid that dries into a tan or “honey-glazed” scab that encrusts the soars. The definition of “Scabie” is long- too long. But it gives the idea of how disgusting these parasites can be, giving illustration to the slang. “Scabie” is an adjective describing someone, situation, or possibly generalized to an object. “Scabie” can be used synonymous with the word “Sketchy,” though more specific, and far more of an affront than a mere “Sketchy.” A “Scabie” person, for example, is especially parasitic, doing something to another to their own benefit, or praying upon others. The wrongdoer transgresses all morality in a complete disregard to others. “Sketchy” is someone or a situation that you don’t trust, maybe that you raise an eyebrow to, where “Scabie”... If someone is “Scabie,” that’s down-right dirty! “Scabie” is not only distrustful, but underhanded, cheating, scheming, rotten. -A person that will swindle you dry if they got the chance. The “Scabie” offender is Scandalous! Shameless! They are your scam-artists, liars politicians and lawyers. In addition, because of it’s STD distinction, “Scabie” often can intend sexually sordid as well.

WHY would you choose the shortened name for such a nasty bug?

BTW - I don't think that Fischer was crazy, just a raving lunatic with a deranged outlook and a dash of paranoia tossed in for goos measure. Not to mention his internalized self hatred for being part Jew himself. Other than that he was pretty straight.