Michael Bast said
>... I've noticed about very intelligent [people are] prone to
>self-sabotage. They've bought into believing that they're not 'worthy'
>of success, that being bright somehow makes them bad, etc.
I believe the 66 2/3% bulge of any bell curve can act as a gravitational (like) attractor of immense power. There is a continual mimetic tidal force constantly clawing at the outliers. Those to the left are an economic drag. Those to the right are a social and economic threat. Just be like us...or die.
I believe that the advent of liberal capitalism, materialism and the military industrial complex have been the major factors which have made the reviling and/or killing of +140 IQ individuals an economically poor decision. Prior to those events, there was no particular benefit to intelligence, because everyone was "going to heaven" and reading was something that was done by the weird, and satanic. Just look at the "heroes of ancient science". They did their work in secret so as to avoid criminal prosecution and death. Newton, DaVinci, Servetus, Galileo. Now, if they kill us, we will stop making their cool gadgets. We're tolerated for the shiny stuff we make for the bulge.
The fact is, that when a 2 or > sigma individual is growing up, they are likely to be so different from their parents, peers, that they (we) are rejected as not able to fit in, and therefore not worthy to fit in. Rejection by parents/peers is the ultimate psychological injury. The natural result to a young biological organism which needs love and positive reinforcement is depression, and neurotic behaviour, followed by a lifelong expectation of rejection which often becomes a self fulfilling prophesy.
Prior to the web, we got together in universities if we could happen to afford it. Now, we have lists which provide us with our very own "planet".
This is not intended to be depressing by the way...their are ways out...