Success and Insanity

Twenty of the most brilliant families of New England teem with one form of insanity: manic-depressive psychosis. Such is the opinion, published last week by famed Boston Psychiatrist Abraham Myerson. His sources: century-old case records in McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass., one of the oldest private hospitals in America.

"These families," wrote Dr. Myerson and Rosalie D. Boyle in the American Journal of Psychiatry, "have boasted presidents of the U.S., philosophers of international importance, writers who have founded schools of literature, scientists in every field . . . medical men galore . . . Governors of Massachusetts . . . Chief Justices of the Supreme Court . . . Secretaries of State . . . ambassadors . . . founders of colleges, churches, business houses. . . . The people of these families have built railroads, financed and carried through in important measure all of the great U.S. enterprises. . . ."

Of course, said Dr. Myerson, if one looks far enough, there is plenty of insanity in every family. What distinguishes the New England Brahmins is a scarcity of schizophrenia (split personality), idiocy and other forms of elation and despair, whose "fundamental basis," said Dr. Myerson, "is an inherited constitution." In the mad New Englanders this inheritance was intensified by a high degree of intermarriage. One distinguished family has had 16 inmates in McLean Hospital.

Other Myerson points:

>There have been few men of conventional "genius" (original creative ability), few artists and musicians among the New Englanders. Rather have they been "men of energy and drive." The manic drive itself, said Dr. Myerson, does not guarantee success. "It is of value only if joined to ability."

> One of his examples fits the history of the distinguished James clan. The founder was an immigrant who grew rich after the Revolution. His son Henry had depressions, suffered greatly, finally reached a religious philosophy. One of the grandchildren landed in the hospital with manic-depressive psychosis. Two others were a famed psychologist and a famed novelist. (William James suffered for years from severe depression.)

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