Why Smart People Hurt

July 15, 2013
In his newest book on creativity, Maisel (Making Your Creative Mark), a psychotherapist, expounds on the idea of natural psychology, which holds that the key to a satisfying existence lies in making meaning, a self-defined, self-manifested psychological experience. Accordingly, he views problems such as mania, depression, insomnia, and the behavior of Kafka’s “hunger artist” not as psychiatric maladies but as natural consequences of the limited human mind interacting with a complex environment. And smart people, Maisel argues, are especially prone to these kinds of issues—their brains are wont to race without an off switch, grind away at difficult problems, create rigorous mental systems to maintain self-control, and become intensely occupied with finding meaning. In other words, smart people are very good at stressing themselves out. To combat the negative effects of these mental exertions, Maisel recommends practicing “brain awareness” (an understanding of the limitations of the mind) and gathering the courage to “stand up,” make decisions about what is meaningful for you, and focus your thinking only on what serves that decision-making process. Of course, the intended audience for this book—smart people—will immediately grasp how reductively simplistic and vague this advice is.