Intellectual Genius, Interrupted

But of course, a supremely high degree of cerebral function does not guarantee mental stability. This has been demonstrated amply, time and again.

Brilliant minds can also present as extremely fragile minds, troubled by emotions they cannot control, much less understand. To be human is to be potentially capable of much, and at the same time, susceptible to mysterious failings. Human life is fraught with pitfalls, not necessarily of our own devising, but often of forces beyond our understanding.

So it is really dreadfully sad to read about promising and bright people who have made vast intellectual, creative contributions to the store of humankind's inventive, sometimes amazingly intuitive knowledge. About ourselves, about technology, about the world around us, and the universe we inhabit.

From nuclear scientists, to mathematicians, brain surgeons, bio-engineers, anthropologists, explorers, philosophers and astro-physicists, beneath that clear mental functioning there is an individual who can succumb to mental distress.

One such story attaches to a computer science professor, a young man born in Toronto, who was involved with research projects through a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research program, investigating "the inner workings of the world's most mysterious computer - the brain."

So how utterly ironic in a turn of sad fate that this man, Sam Roweis, although wearing a happy and friendly visage to those who knew him well as a colleague and a friend, was in such torment that he inexplicably took his own life, at age 37.

The recent birth of premature twins requiring particular care causing mental anguish and stress between himself and his wife, along with academic pressure has been attributed to causing his death. This responsible, professional, successful academic who latterly taught a course as associate professor at New York University, after a previous job at MIT, is thought to have suffered agonies of depression that sent him 'over the edge'.

Amazingly, the little-recognized (let alone known) phenomenon of male postpartum depression, described by a psychotherapist, an American expert in male psychological health, who directed notice to the stress involved in risk factors in this man's life through the shared care of his prematurely-born twin babies.

This expert postulates that the condition named "paternal post-natal depression" in men which manifests as lack of sleep, hormonal changes, drop in testosterone levels, as causing anger and depression. It would appear that Mr. Roweis and his wife had been engaged in a heated argument over the care of their children, when he leaped from the 15th-storey balcony of his New York City apartment.

The human brain, mind and spirit is indeed a mysterious and brilliant creation of nature. Capable of unimaginable leaps of intelligent design, and yet of plumbing the depths of despair over which it appears to have little control.