If high IQ is viewed merely as a product of atypical brain organisation, it can have a negative connotation but the potential constellation of plus points as well as any negatives seems to be as variable and as individual as those with high IQ’s.

The emphasis on high IQ as merely a numerical value does an injustice to those individuals who are quantitatively and qualitatively different from the norm. In the same way to imply that those differences are in some way to be considered as a negative is perhaps a misrepresentation.

The “gift” of intellectual ability or creativity has long been recognised to bring with it the potential for mental health issues and other difficulties. The biological differences that underpin both that creative mind and those weaknesses are begining to be understood and certainly some constelllations of attributes and deficits are seen to coalesce to form definable disorders.

However in the case of those with high IQ what some may seek to define as disorder are in reality only those quantifiable differences that bring with them both great potential and vunerabilities.

If there is disorder it is likely to be in the failure to recognise both the inherent vunerability as well as the outstanding attributes of a person, more a failure then of nurture than of nature.