"Borderline insanity, crankiness, insane temperament, loss of mental balance, psychopathic degeneration (to use a few of the many synonyms by which it has been called), has certain peculiarities and liabilities which, when combined with a superior quality of intellect in an individual, make it more probable that he will make his mark and affect his age, than if his temperament were less neurotic. There is of course no special affinity between crankiness as such and superior intellect... But the psychopathic temperament, whatever be the intellect with which it finds itself paired, often brings with it ardor and excitability of character. The cranky person has extraordinary emotional susceptibility. He is liable to fixed ideas and obsessions. His conceptions tend to pass immediately into belief and action; when he gets a new idea, he has no rest until he proclaims it, or in some way 'works it off.' 'What shall I think of it?' a common person says to himself about a vexed question; but in a 'cranky' mind 'What must I do about it?' is the form the question tends to take."

William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1901

kacollin@unity.ncsu.edu (3/22/98)
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~kacollin