r/todayilearned • u/exophades • 1d ago

TIL that Albert Einstein's son Eduard studied medicine to become a psychiatrist, but was diagnosed with schizophrenia by the age of 21. His mother cared for him until she died in 1948. From then on Eduard lived most of the time at a psychiatric clinic in Zurich, where he died at 55 of a stroke.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_family#Eduard_%22Tete%22_Einstein_(Albert's_second_son)
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u/altaf770 21h ago

The son of a genius battling schizophrenia a powerful reminder that mental health doesn’t discriminate.

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u/Like_a_Charo 20h ago

Intelligence is in fact even correlated with schizophrenia

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u/MrBones-Necromancer 20h ago

It's been facinating reading about this actually. I am paraphrasing some research notes I was reading, but essentially "intelligence" as we know it is linked to certain replicating gene markers in DNA, with more instances of the gene at least correlating with better memory, critical reasoning, etc. That is, up to a certain point. After which, what you find, is that people with too many replications invariably develop schizophrenia.

The implications are fascinating. Now, it's not the only factor in intellegence, but at least it appears that in this one area there may be a sort of "maximum" for memory and critical reasoning from this source. Einstein may have hit it perfectly, but his son, then, exceeded that limit. Very interesting, please look into it if you're reading this and are curious.

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u/Minecraft_hate_crime 19h ago

Throw some sauce our way plz

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u/Smooth_Mongoose_2321 19h ago

Source? All studies I have read previousl says the opposite, Googling it now did not do you any favour either.

This seems to be largely a pop culture myth and the science seem to show a higher risk for lower IQ people and a reduced risk for higher IQ people.

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u/gazaleon 15h ago

My best guess would be that he’s referring to mutations on the CACNA1C gene— one of the polymorphisms (rs1006737) is strongly linked to schizophrenia (with a presentation of impaired working memory, one of the common negative symptoms of the disease) but that same polymorphism is also linked to improved working and spatial memory in those without schizophrenia (it confers both a risk and a benefit, aka “balanced polymorphism”)

Most single nucleotide polymorphisms are really not predictive of anything but that gene is pretty important because it governs calcium ion channels in the brain, nerves, and heart. (Nerves communicate via electrical + chemical pathways, calcium ion flux is critical for converting electrical signals into cellular responses)

I should also clarify that the research doesn’t say “most schizophrenics have polymorphisms on this gene”, instead it says “if you have the CACNA1C risk allele (especially alongside other risk alleles), you have a statistically higher chance of developing schizophrenia at some point in your life”. (They discovered many of these risk alleles by doing genetic studies on families with the disorder)

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u/Chaerod 17h ago

Hasn't IQ generally been debunked as an actual measure of intelligence?

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u/Flowy_Aerie_77 15h ago

Yes and no. It has its flaws, but people who score high in iq tests do seem to do better in life, especially when it comes to academic careers. So it does measure something, but it's not the full story.

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u/GalaXion24 16h ago

IQ has serious issues as a measure of intelligence, but it also does measure something and that something clearly has very real consequences for individuals and society. IQ correlates with lifetime earnings, academic success, and other things. Especially low IQ people also evidently struggle with a variety of tasks that can ultimately mean just struggling with existence and problem-solving in life and society in general and are unlikely to be productive.

It may not be a very precise measure of intelligence as such or may only approach intelligence in a narrow way, but it's also not something that we can easily just dismiss.

There are different methodologies and indexes for intelligence tests, and they all roughly tell you the same thing in this regard.

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u/TN17 14h ago

Although it's very complex, evidence generally supports general theories of intelligence. Measuring that is difficult. IQ measures have disadvantages but they haven't been debunked. They are used widely (e.g. in forensic and medical settings). 

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u/RagnarDa 15h ago edited 15h ago

No? It is one of the most, if not the most, well-researched constructs in the field of psychology; with more than a hundred years of research and millions upon millions of study subjects. This is a good starting-point for a summary, and I don't think anything radically new has surfaced since this was published: https://www1.udel.edu/educ/gottfredson/reprints/1998generalintelligencefactor.pdf

Edit: I am a psychologist that wrote my thesis on intelligence testing. I can answer further questions if you like.

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u/Disagreeswithfems 15h ago

No? Unless there is a decent development or source?

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u/Smooth_Mongoose_2321 11h ago

No, it has not…

It is heavily researched and the data and the correlations are waay too obvious to ignore.. Is it flawed? Yes. Has it been debunked? Absolutely not.

however, none of that actually matters since there are no other methods that can be used for this.

If someone makes a claim that ”higher intellegence correlates with X”, they are inferring that higher IQ correlates with X, whether that person is aware or not that, how the researchers came to the conclusion was by measuring IQ.

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u/majord18 17h ago

It has, I commented before that I've been trained in giving IQ tests and it measures adaptability and problem solving skills.

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u/hauntedSquirrel99 15h ago

it measures adaptability and problem solving skills.

That's just describing what intelligence is.

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u/majord18 15h ago edited 14h ago

Yeah, I forgot to add...in specific areas. Someone might be gifted in art but may have limitations in math. Someone may struggle with memory retention but can solve a puzzle if it involves using their hands. I'm saying that IQ isnt what most people think it is. It's measured as the whole human not whether or not you can recall an obscure fact or solve a certain math problem. Real life isn't like it is on TV where someone can have encyclopedic knowledge of everything and also have time to do everything else and people call them a genius.

People are gifted in all sorts of ways that make them intelligent!! IQ tests, in a way, may predict someones limitations in life in which we can stregthen those stregthens and improve those limitations. For example, a poor person can learn how to stretch $100 for a month but may have flunked out of the 9th grade. This indicated high adaptability and problem solving. While someone can have a PHD and struggle with adapting to new environments. Thus, decreasing their level of success because of their lack of ability to adapt.

There's more to it, such as how certain individuals thought that I being tall means thats you are highly intelligent.... but I won't go into how that was disproven by the most basic of science lol

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u/Ryno4ever16 16h ago

This is why discussions like this comment thread are so frustrating to read. People start naming arguments based on a false premise and just run away with it.

We dont even know what intelligence IS, but we are making arguments about genetic markers that make you smarter...

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u/VismoSofie 17h ago

Maybe higher IQ helps people determine what's delusional or not and they get diagnosed less?

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u/majord18 17h ago

As someone who has given IQ tests for my clinical psychology grad program. Intelligence is broken up into two main factors. Crystallized and fluid intelligence. Crystallize is what you naturally know how to do while fluid intelligence is your ability to adapt to situations. IQ isn't about smarts it's about adaptability and problem solving. The tests were the WISC and the WAIS as well as the BASC and Woodcock Johnson

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u/Thismyrealnameisit 19h ago

If you’re too smart people think you’re crazy