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In Indiscrete Thoughts, Gian-Carlo Rota claims that:

It cannot be a complete coincidence that several outstanding logicians of the twentieth century found shelter in asylums at some point in their lives: Cantor, Zermelo, Gödel and Post are some.

Elsewhere, he hints that the rate of mental illness among logicians is much higher than the general population.

Do logicians suffer from mental illness at significantly higher rates than the population at large (or other similar groups, such as academics)? If so, is there an accepted explanation for this association?

Oddthinking
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Jayson Virissimo
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    Do we have any more context for the claim? For it seems to me, it is not just a "coincidence" but *expected* that in a large group of candidates, four had mental health issues at some stage of their life. – Oddthinking Apr 04 '15 at 01:57
  • The graphic novel *Logicomix* explores this a lot. Part of the theme of the novel is that many famous logicians went or were crazy in various ways. I'd be interested to see how true it is. I actually suspect it is true, particularly if you restrict to groundbreaking logicians. – Caleb Stanford Apr 04 '15 at 02:16
  • Please remember to [be nice](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/help/be-nice) in the comments. – Oddthinking Apr 05 '15 at 00:19
  • @Oddthinking - there may be SOME causal relationship if you include autism spectrum disorders in "mental illness" umbrella – user5341 Apr 07 '15 at 17:27

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