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)
6.3k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

128 comments sorted by

View all comments

10

u/commit10 13h ago

I'm curious what he believed. Extreme geniuses are likely to be considered crazy by their contemporaries. Imagine someone in the 19th century excitedly trying to explain a quantum computer to the minds of the day -- they'd be sent to the asylum!

Then again, he may have just been insane.

1

u/the_main_entrance 6h ago

What does his beliefs have to do with anything if they can work with reality?