just your take, off the top of your head -- no big deal

[fflo]

[Poll #913329]

Comments

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Not mental illness per se, but I think I was delusional to think it counts as much as I once thought it did.

Measuring intelligence by the ability to solve silly puzzles or to attain academic achievement can be misleading for someone whose intelligence is not that needed to survive in the world.

[aabassplayer.livejournal.com]

and what I mean by "well, maybe" is it's not, in itself, a mental illness, but I think that people that focus on intelligence and logic can sometimes trap themselves into thinking too much...over analyzing things to a point that the thing itself no longer has meaning without the attachment of the other bits of analysis...A kiss is no longer a kiss, but perhaps a connection of two people, loving or not, having intention or not, yada yada....Sometimes smart people trap themselves out of the moment...other times it's good to be smart, having more experience and intellectual curiosity will allow you to grow and relate more fully to others, as you may have a higher potential of truely having been in their shoes before.

So...no...not a mental illness, but it has been noted as a common trapping of society.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

i can echo the flavor of mixed feelings you seem to get at there.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

If you changed the wording just slightly to "can contribute to causing and/or can to some degree result from," then I would have a much easier time agreeing. It's just the actual being or functioning as, all by itself, that I have doubts about.

[vjsmom.livejournal.com]

Sometimes smart people trap themselves out of the moment

aabassplayer hit that nail on the head, proverbially speaking.

[sprig5.livejournal.com]

I change my poll answer, from "too many parens" to "maybe." Seems like too much of anything goin' on in the brain could be mental (or physical) illness. What is mental illness? Or what do you mean by it here? Neural activity that causes the person not to function the way we value in society etc.? Seems like there could be a big diff between "being" and "functioning as ... a form of .... mental illness." Not sure what you mean by the latter.

And (blecchy memory of the use of that word when I was in grad school) what do you mean by "smart"?