The Genius Famine: Why We Need Geniuses, Why They're Dying Out, Why We Must Rescue Them - Softcover

We live in a society where, for whatever reason, genius tends to be unacknowledged, denied, ignored or even (usually for 'politically correct' reasons) actively persecuted. For the past four hundred years, geniuses have been common to all the major humanities and sciences, art, literature, medicine, law, politics, the military and religion - yet today they have almost disappeared. A genius combines extremely high intelligence with an unworldly, intuitive personality. Geniuses will seldom fit into normal society; they will seldom want to. Nor should they, since it is their unusual and socially-difficult nature which drives geniuses to come up with original ideas, make breakthrough discoveries or solve unyielding problems by intuitive insight. But modern society has been hit by a genius famine. There are ever fewer geniuses and modern society has become actively hostile to those we still have. The Genius Famine explores the nature of genius, why the genius famine has happened, how it threatens civilization and what we can and should do to overcome it.

Edward Dutton is Adjunct Professor of the Anthropology of Religion at Oulu University in Finland and an independent scholar. Bruce G Charlton is Visiting Professor of Theoretical Medicine at the University of Buckingham and Reader in Evolutionary Psychiatry at Newcastle University.