Spin-Off: Mentally Unstable People with Advanced Degrees

[Senusret I]

It was stated in another thread that they don't give MBAs to crazy people.

I assert that the mentally unstable are perfectly capable of earning advanced degrees.

Any of you care to chime in with examples to support or refute my assertion?

[RU OX Alum]

Most of my profs. held advanced, if not terminal degrees. Most of them were a little "touched."

[Benzgirl]

Bruce E. Ivins, aka Prune Tacos in the GC World, the anthrax scientist, PhD in Mircobiology
Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, PhD in Mathematics

[Senusret I]

Ahhh PruneTacos.

I am honestly surprised that more people didn't seem to be disturbed by his story.

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Ahhh PruneTacos.

I am honestly surprised that more people didn't seem to be disturbed by his story.

*raises hand*

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=79946

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=80434

[LightBulb]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Ahhh PruneTacos.

I am honestly surprised that more people didn't seem to be disturbed by his story.

Whoa! I remembered Prunetacos because of the weird screename, and I remember the anthrax case, but I didn't know that was him. (I guess I wasn't too active when the story broke.)

Scary!

[AGDee]

When I was working on my Masters in Clinical Psychology, we were strongly encouraged to attend counseling ourselves to 1) better understand our own motivations for going into Psychology and 2) be able to understand and work through transference issues with patients (ie. the patient that reminds you of your abusive ex-husband, etc). That was from '91-'93 (I didn't finish because I got pregnant with my daughter and I'm not superhuman like some people.. I was working full time, going to grad school part time-evenings and couldn't do that and deal with first time motherhood too). The majority of my co-workers throughout my career were quite stable and it was THE MOST supportive work environment I ever had. We worked so strongly as a team in every single work place and those work relationships were stronger than any I've experienced since because of it. When you work on psych units in hospitals, you have to have total trust in your co-workers, know that they are alert and have your back, and communicate constantly, not only about the status of patients, but about your personal status because your job is very dependent on your own personal emotional state being steady. After an extreme situation on a unit was resolved, the team would get together to make sure all the staff were ok, not just physically, but emotionally and then to process how it was handled, if anything could have been done differently, if there were signs ahead of time that something was awry, etc. When I was working at one adolescent psych hospital, the communication was not as good. We took a group of patients to the circus for an out trip (used to test how they were going to interact with the real world environment before being discharged) and two of them escaped (we used the term eloped, but most people consider that running away to get married..lol). When we got back, one of the social workers told us that one of those girls had just been told that on discharge she was going to a locked residential unit instead of home. She never should have told this girl that right before an out trip. AND, after she did tell the girl, she should have alerted the team because that kind of news almost always makes a kid an elopement risk. We would not have taken that girl with us. The two girls ended up being found and hauled back to the hospital, but those kinds of things shouldn't happen.

The only time I was ever injured was when a staff member decided it was better for her to take her break on time, leaving me alone with 12 girls in an off-unit activity room, than to wait until another staff member got there to relieve her. Two girls got into a physical fight within seconds of her leaving the room. Being the only staff member present, I had to physically get between them to protect them and one of their punches landed on my jaw and my jaw was dislocated. Thankfully, some staff walking by the room heard a commotion and came in to see if everything was ok and rescued me from that situation while I was physically holding one girl back and moving her around the room to keep away from the other one, who was still trying to attack her.

Both of those incidents were at the same hospital and involved the same patient! I left that hospital shortly after that because I didn't trust the STAFF there.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

It was stated in another thread that they don't give MBAs to crazy people.

I assert that the mentally unstable are perfectly capable of earning advanced degrees.

Any of you care to chime in with examples to support or refute my assertion?

YES!

John Forbes Nash, Jr., PhD, pioneer in game theory, paranoid schizophrenic, subject of "A Beautiful Mind"

Eccentricity has always been tolerated, if not accepted, in academia. Think of the "mad scientist" or the "absent-minded professor." Extreme success in one part of your life seems to excuse other, less savory aspects of your life. There are plenty of crazy-ass people who have PhDs or other advanced degrees. The ivory tower, and especially once tenure is granted, is far more accepting of certain nonsense than the private sector.

Also, why do people ascribe such prestige to an MBA? The University of Phoenix, for crying out loud, grants an MBA. With an open admissions policy, don't think the crazies aren't going to come calling!

I had a good number of crazy professors in college, fewer in grad school (they were just idiots), and I dated a man who, after we broke up, I realized that he was actually insane. We met while he was getting his MBA.

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

YES!

John Forbes Nash, Jr., PhD, pioneer in game theory, paranoid schizophrenic, subject of "A Beautiful Mind"

Eccentricity has always been tolerated, if not accepted, in academia. Think of the "mad scientist" or the "absent-minded professor." Extreme success in one part of your life seems to excuse other, less savory aspects of your life. There are plenty of crazy-ass people who have PhDs or other advanced degrees. The ivory tower, and especially once tenure is granted, is far more accepting of certain nonsense than the private sector.

Also, why do people ascribe such prestige to an MBA? The University of Phoenix, for crying out loud, grants an MBA. With an open admissions policy, don't think the crazies aren't going to come calling!

I had a good number of crazy professors in college, fewer in grad school (they were just idiots), and I dated a man who, after we broke up, I realized that he was actually insane. We met while he was getting his MBA.

Don't get me started on the "prestige" of the MBA.....

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

Television major? Is that the proclaimed Couch Potato?

Haha, don't know if you're joking or not...but some schools have television and film undergrad programs. My undergrad had one (out of the College of Communications), and it was essentially the film majors and those who wanted to go into TV and film production. Some of the programs are quite good; I know a bunch of people who have gone on to be producers of nationally-broadcast events, or some of the big national nightly news programs.

There are definitely crazies in every field, with any degree, from undergraduate degrees, to those with an M.D., J.D., MBA, etc.

[sigmadiva]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Eccentricity has always been tolerated, if not accepted, in academia. Think of the "mad scientist" or the "absent-minded professor." Extreme success in one part of your life seems to excuse other, less savory aspects of your life. There are plenty of crazy-ass people who have PhDs or other advanced degrees. The ivory tower, and especially once tenure is granted, is far more accepting of certain nonsense than the private sector.

I can't speak for everyone who has an advanced degree, but in my area, life sciences / biomedical sciences, very often people are quite normal when they enter grad school. The 'craziness' usually comes during grad work because of all the pressure and expectations associated with obtaining an advanced degree. Not just that, working in a life science / biomedical lab can be very stressful. And, dealing with your grad committee is no picnic either.

When working on an advanced degree, you don't have a normal life. You have to give up a lot - hobbies, activities, relationships, for the degree. Some people can handle the pressure, some can not.

As for the crazy prof, obtaining tenure can be just as stressful as grad school. Some universities have dealt with tenure by eliminating it, or not making such a big deal out of it. And, for those schools that still have a tenure system, maintaining tenure can be stressful also.

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by sigmadiva

I can't speak for everyone who has an advanced degree, but in my area, life sciences / biomedical sciences, very often people are quite normal when they enter grad school. The 'craziness' usually comes during grad work because of all the pressure and expectations associated with obtaining an advanced degree. Not just that, working in a life science / biomedical lab can be very stressful. And, dealing with your grad committee is no picnic either.

When working on an advanced degree, you don't have a normal life. You have to give up a lot - hobbies, activities, relationships, for the degree. Some people can handle the pressure, some can not.

As for the crazy prof, obtaining tenure can be just as stressful as grad school. Some universities have dealt with tenure by eliminating it, or not making such a big deal out of it. And, for those schools that still have a tenure system, maintaining tenure can be stressful also.

A lot of signs of Schizophrenia appear in early adulthood, which would be consistent with College and Grad School. I think the additional pressures is often the catalyst for setting the illness into motion.

[PM_Mama00]

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

Dr. Tom was also a concert pianist and never married. he lived at home with his parents and doubt he had any friends. The biggest kicker was during a final. Since several of his classes were small, he held all of the finals at the same time in an auditorium. About 15 minutes into the final, he sat down at the piano and started playing Beethovan's 5th. I think more than a few of us were freaked out.

I normally don't actually "lol" but I just did. I'm just picturing what would happen had that happened in one of my classes. That's awesome. What did everyone do?

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by PM_Mama00

I normally don't actually "lol" but I just did. I'm just picturing what would happen had that happened in one of my classes. That's awesome. What did everyone do?

A lot of jaws dropped, as did a few pencils. By that point in the quarter, we all knew how strange he was. Just the icing on the cake and something to talk about during the next quarter.

I just checked his CV. He is still teaching.

[Senusret I]

^^^ Yet and still, people just don't seem to be any more cautious, even though they know we had a killer among us.