What Is It Called When You Do the Same Thing Over and Over Again
Albert Einstein? Al-Anon? Narcotics Bearding? Max Nordau? George Bernard Shaw? Samuel Beckett? George A. Kelly? Rita Mae Dark-brown? John Larroquette? Jessie Potter? Werner Erhard?
Dear Quote Investigator: It'southward foolish to repeat ineffective deportment. 1 popular conception presents this point harshly:
The definition of insanity is doing the aforementioned thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
These words are usually credited to the acclaimed genius Albert Einstein. What do y'all recollect?
Quote Investigator: In that location is no substantive evidence that Einstein wrote or spoke the statement higher up. It is listed within a section called "Misattributed to Einstein" in the comprehensive reference "The Ultimate Quotable Einstein" from Princeton Academy Press. [1] 2010, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited past Alice Calaprice, Section: Misattributed to Einstein, Quote Page 474, Princeton Academy Press, Princeton, New Jersey. (Verified on paper)
The earliest strong friction match known to QI appeared in October 1981 within a Knoxville, Tennessee newspaper commodity describing a coming together of Al-Anon, an organization designed to help the families of alcoholics. The journalist described the "Twelve Steps" of Al-Anon which are based on like steps employed in Alcoholics Bearding. The newspaper began with these 2 steps: [2] 1981 October 11, The Knoxville News-Sentinel Al-Betimes Helps Family, Friends to Orderly Lives by Betsy Pickle (Living Today Staff Author), Quote Page F17, Column two, Knoxville, Tennessee. (GenealogyBank)
Step one: We admitted nosotros were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity
Ane of the attendees at the coming together hesitated to accept the accuracy of second step. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:
Not all the women are willing to admit they needed to be "restored to sanity." In fact, i of them adamantly maintains that she had never reached a betoken of insanity. Merely another remarks, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and once again and expecting dissimilar results."
The second primeval stiff friction match known to QI appeared in a pamphlet printed by the Narcotics Anonymous organization in November 1981: [3] 1981, Narcotics Bearding Pamphlet, (Basic Text Approval Form, Unpublished Literary Work), Chapter 4: How Information technology Works, Step 2, Page xi, Printed November 1981, Copyright 1981, W.S.C.-Literature … Continue reading
The price may seem higher for the addict who prostitutes for a set than it is for the aficionado who but lies to a doctor, merely ultimately both pay with their lives. Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.
QI acquired a PDF of the certificate with the quotation above on the website amonymifoundation.org back in February 2011. The document stated that is was printed in November 1981, and it had a 1981 copyright notice. The website was subsequently reorganized, merely the document remains available via the Internet Archive Wayback Automobile database.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological society.
The linkage between insanity and repetition has a long history. The controversial book "Degeneration" past Max Nordau was published in German in 1892 and translated into English past 1895. Nordau examined the works of a variety of artists and savagely attacked those that contained repetition which he believed evinced a mental defect in the creator. For instance, he criticized Maurice Maeterlinck'southward "La Princesse Maleine": [4] 1895 Copyright, Degeneration past Max Nordau (Max Simon Nordau) (Translated from the Second Edition of the German Work), Quote Page 238, D. Appleton and Company. (Google Books Full View) link
Has anyone anywhere in the poetry of the two worlds ever seen such complete idiocy? These 'Ahs' and 'Ohs,' this desire of comprehension of the simplest remarks, this repetition four or 5 times of the same imbecile expressions, gives the truest believable clinical moving picture of incurable cretinism. These parts are precisely those almost extolled by Maeterlinck's admirers.
When George Bernard Shaw reviewed Nordau's opus he turned the criticism of repetition back upon the author and suggested that Nordau might diagnose himself as mentally unsound: [5] 1895 July 27, Freedom, Volume 11, Number 6, A Degenerate's View of Nordau by Bernard Shaw, Quote Page 2, Column ane, Published by Benj. R Tucker, New York. (Reprint in 1970 by Greenwood Reprint … Go along reading
I accept read Max Nordau's "Degeneration" at your request,—two hundred and sixty thousand mortal words, saying the aforementioned thing over and over again. That, as y'all know, is the way to bulldoze a affair into the heed of the world, though Nordau considers it a symptom of insane "obsession" on the part of writers who practice non share his own opinions. His bulletin to the world is that all our characteristically modernistic works of art are symptoms of disease in the artists, and that these diseased artists are themselves symptoms of the nervous exhaustion of the race past overwork.
The 1955 book "The Psychology of Personal Constructs" past George A. Kelly included a definition that corresponded to the saying under investigation although it employed a different vocabulary: [six] 1955, The Psychology of Personal Constructs by George A. Kelly, Volume two: Clinical Diagnosis and Psychotherapy, Quote Page 831, Published by W. W. Norton & Company, New York. (Verified on paper)
From the standpoint of the psychology of personal constructs nosotros may define a disorder as any personal construction which is used repeatedly in spite of consistent invalidation. This is an unusual definition, as psychological thinking ordinarily goes.
In Oct 1981 an educator and counselor on family relationships delivered a spoken communication containing a thematically related adage: [seven] 1981 October 24, The Milwaukee Scout, Search For Quality Called Fundamental To Life past Tom Ahern, Quote Page 5, Column 5, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Google News Archive)
"If you always practice what you've ever done, yous always become what you've always gotten." That was the advice of Jessie Potter, the featured speaker at Friday'southward opening of the seventh annual Adult female to Woman conference.
More than information about the quotation in a higher place is available here.
In October 1981 the maxim was spoken by an attendee of an Al-Anon meeting as noted previously:
Insanity is doing the same matter over and over again and expecting dissimilar results.
In November 1981 a pamphlet from Narcotics Anonymous contained a close lucifer as noted previously:
Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.
The 1983 novel "Sudden Death" by Rita Mae Brown included an case credited to Jane Fulton who was a character within the book: [8] 1983, Sudden Death by Rita Mae Brown, Chapter iv, Quote Page 68, Published by Bantam Books, New York. (Verified with scans)
The trouble with Susan was that she made the same mistakes repeatedly. She'd fall in love with a woman and consume her. Susan thought that her mere presence was enough. What more was there to give? When she tired, commonly afterward a yr or and then, she'd find another adult female.
Unfortunately, Susan didn't remember what Jane Fulton once said. "Insanity is doing the aforementioned thing over and over again, but expecting unlike results."
A June 1983 book review of "Sudden Decease" in "The Clarion-Ledger" of Jackson, Mississippi reprinted the saying: [nine] 1983 June xix, The Clarion-Ledger, "Sudden Death" a complex metaphor by Stephen 50. Silberman, (Volume review of "Sudden Expiry" by Rita Mae Dark-brown), Quote Folio 7H, Column ii, … Continue reading
Women'south tennis gets a thorough dissecting in this story. Jane Fulton is the disquisitional sports writer who contends "Modern professional sports rewards players for function instead of character. Responsibleness is normally defined as doing a job meliorate than anyone else." She looks askance at professional tennis and says "Win and get a god. Lose and be forgotten." Finally after following the lives and careers of the players, and the game itself, she concludes, "Insanity is doing the same affair over and over and over again, simply expecting different results."
Also in 1983 Samuel Beckett, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, offered a counterpoint perspective in his work "Worstward Ho": [10] 1983, Worstward Ho by Samuel Beckett, Quote Page 7, Grove Press Inc., New York. (Verified with scans)
All of former. Nothing else e'er. E'er tried. E'er failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
In January 1986 the Emmy-winning actor John Larroquette who was a star in the idiot box comedy series "Night Court" shared the definition during a newspaper interview: [xi] 1986 Jan five, The Sydney Morning Herald, Television with Jacqueline Lee Lewes: From drugs, drink to… Dark Courtroom: 'Confessions of an Emmy Star, Quote Page 31, Cavalcade 3, Sydney, New … Continue reading
He pops in a definition of insanity – "It's the repetition of the same activity expecting different results. Similar jumping out of a 40-storey building, breaking every bone, spending half-dozen months in hospital, going back to the aforementioned building, up to the 39th floor, jumping and expecting it to be dissimilar. It is NEVER different."
In April 1986 an opinion piece past Baltazar A. Acevedo Jr in "The Dallas Morning News" of Texas included the maxim: [12] 1986 April 25, The Dallas Morning News, Leadership Beyond Ethnicity Should Exist Goal of Dallasites by Baltazar A. Acevedo Jr., Dallas, Texas. (NewsBank Access World News)
I once heard insanity defined equally a process by which an individual or a arrangement does something over and again in the same way while all the same expecting unlike results. To continue to evaluate and accost issues in our community strictly along ethnic, instead of homo, considerations is insane if only for i reason: It will lead to the polarization that is the standard of paranoid societies.
The 1988 book "Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent Earth" included an case: [13] 1988 Copyright, Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent World: Seven Building Blocks for Developing Capable Young People by H. Stephen Glenn and Jane Nelsen, Quote Page 174, Published by … Go along reading
Flexibility is the ability to curve when we observe ourselves in unworkable positions. A universal characteristic of insanity is inflexibly doing the aforementioned thing over and over while hoping for dissimilar results. Flexibility in the face of irresolute circumstances, past contrast, is a hallmark of mental health.
By 1990 the maxim was existence attributed to Einstein. For example, the "Austin American-Statesman" of Austin, Texas published the following remark made by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle: [14] 1990 November 19, Austin American-Statesman, Department: News, Prison Puzzle – Threat of cost explosion poses difficult choices by Mike Ward, Quote Folio A1, Austin, Texas. (NewsBank Admission Earth … Continue reading
Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a unlike result.
In 1991 "The Seattle Times" printed the thoughts of an Indiana judge who ascribed another version of the saying to Einstein: [xv] 1991 July iv, The Seattle Times, Section: Editorial, Getting Out of the Freedom Business by Don Williamson, Quote Folio A8, Seattle, Washington. (NewsBank Access World News)
The jurist from the Hoosier Land subscribes to Albert Einstein'south definition of insanity: "doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome."
In 2000 a columnist working for the Knight Ridder News Service ascribed a version of the saying to the influential lecturer and trainer Werner Erhard although the name was misspelled as "Erhart": [16] 2000 July 30, The Indianapolis Star, Get a plan to overcome trouble spots by Tim O'Brien (Knight Ridder News Service), Quote Page J3, Column 1, Indianapolis, Indiana. (Newspapers_com)
Werner Erhart described insanity as 'repeating identical behavior and expecting a dissimilar upshot.' If we repeatedly have difficulties in an area of life, doesn't it make sense that our behaviors crusade the problems?
In 2016 the webcomic "xkcd" depicted two characters conversing; the first mentioned the now well-known definition of insanity, and the 2d replied with a remark that implicitly and cleverly applied the logic of the definition to his companion: [17] Website: xkcd Comic, Comic championship: Insanity, Comic writer: Randall Munroe, Engagement on website: March eighteen, 2016, Website description: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. (Accessed xkcd.com … Keep reading
You've been quoting that cliché for years. Has it convinced anyone to change their heed yet?
In conclusion, based on current bear witness the proverb originated in i of the twelve-step communities. Anonymity is greatly valued in these communities, and no specific author has been identified by the many researchers who have explored the provenance of this adage. The linkage to Albert Einstein occurred many years after his death and is unsupported.
Image Notes: Two arrows pointing at ane another from OpenClipart-Vectors at Pixabay. Portrait of Albert Einstein circa 1921 by Ferdinand Schmutzer accessed via Wikimedia Eatables. Images have been retouched, cropped and resized.
(Great thanks to MJ Redman, Kevin Ashton, Melinda Denson, Linda Sternhill Davis, The Muser, Mededitor, Santanu Vasant, Simon Lancaster, Michael Cochran, David Meadows, J Carson, Guilherme Simões, Ed Darrell, Lee Winkelman, and Fabius Maximus (Ed.) whose inquiries led QI to codify this question and perform this exploration. Special thanks to the volunteer researchers Quora and Wikiquote who mentioned the Narcotics Anonymous citation. Also, thank you to the valuable research conducted by Barry Popik, Ben Zimmer, and Daniel Gackle. Many thank you to Neb Mullins who located the important October 11, 1981 commendation.)
Update History: On July 31, 2019 the Oct 11, 1981 commendation was added to the article.
Source: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/
0 Response to "What Is It Called When You Do the Same Thing Over and Over Again"
Post a Comment