Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again and Expecting a Different Result
Albert Einstein? Al-Anon? Narcotics Bearding? Max Nordau? George Bernard Shaw? Samuel Beckett? George A. Kelly? Rita Mae Brown? John Larroquette? Jessie Potter? Werner Erhard?
Dear Quote Investigator: It'southward foolish to echo ineffective deportment. One popular formulation presents this indicate harshly:
The definition of insanity is doing the same 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 think?
Quote Investigator: In that location is no substantive evidence that Einstein wrote or spoke the statement above. It is listed inside a section called "Misattributed to Einstein" in the comprehensive reference "The Ultimate Quotable Einstein" from Princeton University Press. [1] 2010, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited by Alice Calaprice, Section: Misattributed to Einstein, Quote Page 474, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. (Verified on newspaper)
The earliest stiff match known to QI appeared in October 1981 inside a Knoxville, Tennessee paper article describing a meeting 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 similar steps employed in Alcoholics Anonymous. The newspaper began with these ii steps: [2] 1981 October 11, The Knoxville News-Sentinel Al-Anon Helps Family, Friends to Orderly Lives past Betsy Pickle (Living Today Staff Writer), Quote Page F17, Column two, Knoxville, Tennessee. (GenealogyBank)
Footstep 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
Stride two: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore u.s.a. to sanity
1 of the attendees at the coming together hesitated to have the accuracy of second step. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:
Non all the women are willing to acknowledge they needed to be "restored to sanity." In fact, i of them adamantly maintains that she had never reached a point of insanity. Simply some other remarks, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
The 2nd earliest strong match known to QI appeared in a pamphlet printed by the Narcotics Anonymous system in November 1981: [3] 1981, Narcotics Anonymous Pamphlet, (Bones Text Approval Form, Unpublished Literary Work), Chapter Four: How Information technology Works, Footstep Two, Page 11, Printed November 1981, Copyright 1981, Due west.S.C.-Literature … Continue reading
The toll may seem higher for the addict who prostitutes for a fix than information technology is for the aficionado who merely lies to a dr., only ultimately both pay with their lives. Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.
QI acquired a PDF of the document with the quotation to a higher place on the website amonymifoundation.org dorsum in February 2011. The document stated that is was printed in November 1981, and information technology had a 1981 copyright observe. The website was later on reorganized, but the document remains available via the Net Archive Wayback Car database.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
The linkage betwixt insanity and repetition has a long history. The controversial volume "Degeneration" by Max Nordau was published in German in 1892 and translated into English by 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 case, he criticized Maurice Maeterlinck's "La Princesse Maleine": [4] 1895 Copyright, Degeneration by Max Nordau (Max Simon Nordau) (Translated from the Second Edition of the German language Piece of work), Quote Page 238, D. Appleton and Company. (Google Books Full View) link
Has anyone anywhere in the poetry of the ii worlds ever seen such complete idiocy? These 'Ahs' and 'Ohs,' this desire of comprehension of the simplest remarks, this repetition four or five times of the same imbecile expressions, gives the truest believable clinical picture show of incurable cretinism. These parts are precisely those near 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 equally mentally unsound: [five] 1895 July 27, Liberty, Volume xi, Number half dozen, A Degenerate's View of Nordau by Bernard Shaw, Quote Folio 2, Column 1, Published by Benj. R Tucker, New York. (Reprint in 1970 by Greenwood Reprint … Continue reading
I have read Max Nordau's "Degeneration" at your request,—two hundred and sixty thousand mortal words, saying the aforementioned matter over and over again. That, equally you lot know, is the way to drive a thing into the mind of the world, though Nordau considers information technology a symptom of insane "obsession" on the part of writers who do not share his own opinions. His message to the world is that all our characteristically modern 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 maxim under investigation although it employed a dissimilar vocabulary: [vi] 1955, The Psychology of Personal Constructs past George A. Kelly, Volume 2: 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 ascertain a disorder every bit any personal construction which is used repeatedly in spite of consistent invalidation. This is an unusual definition, as psychological thinking normally goes.
In October 1981 an educator and counselor on family relationships delivered a speech containing a thematically related adage: [7] 1981 October 24, The Milwaukee Spotter, Search For Quality Called Fundamental To Life by Tom Ahern, Quote Page five, Column five, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Google News Annal)
"If you lot always do what you've always done, you always get what you've always gotten." That was the communication of Jessie Potter, the featured speaker at Friday's opening of the 7th annual Adult female to Adult female conference.
More than information nearly the quotation in a higher place is available here.
In October 1981 the saying was spoken past an attendee of an Al-Anon coming together equally noted previously:
Insanity is doing the same thing over and once again and expecting different results.
In November 1981 a pamphlet from Narcotics Anonymous independent a close match every bit noted previously:
Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.
The 1983 novel "Sudden Death" by Rita Mae Brown included an instance credited to Jane Fulton who was a graphic symbol within the book: [8] 1983, Sudden Death past Rita Mae Brown, Chapter 4, Quote Folio 68, Published past 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 adult female and swallow her. Susan thought that her mere presence was plenty. What more than was at that place to requite? When she tired, commonly subsequently a year or so, she'd detect another woman.
Unfortunately, Susan didn't remember what Jane Fulton once said. "Insanity is doing the same thing over and once more, just expecting different results."
A June 1983 book review of "Sudden Death" in "The Blaring-Ledger" of Jackson, Mississippi reprinted the proverb: [9] 1983 June 19, The Blaring-Ledger, "Sudden Expiry" a complex metaphor by Stephen 50. Silberman, (Book review of "Sudden Death" by Rita Mae Brown), Quote Page 7H, Column ii, … Go along reading
Women'due south tennis gets a thorough dissecting in this story. Jane Fulton is the critical sports author who contends "Modern professional sports rewards players for function instead of character. Responsibility is usually defined as doing a job meliorate than anyone else." She looks askance at professional lawn tennis and says "Win and become a god. Lose and exist forgotten." Finally after following the lives and careers of the players, and the game itself, she concludes, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over once again, but 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 past Samuel Beckett, Quote Page 7, Grove Printing Inc., New York. (Verified with scans)
All of onetime. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Always failed. No matter. Try once again. Fail again. Fail amend.
In January 1986 the Emmy-winning thespian John Larroquette who was a star in the television one-act serial "Night Court" shared the definition during a newspaper interview: [11] 1986 January 5, The Sydney Morn Herald, Goggle box with Jacqueline Lee Lewes: From drugs, potable to… Night Courtroom: 'Confessions of an Emmy Star, Quote Page 31, Column 3, Sydney, New … Continue reading
He pops in a definition of insanity – "Information technology's the repetition of the same action expecting different results. Like jumping out of a twoscore-storey building, breaking every bone, spending 6 months in hospital, going back to the same building, up to the 39th floor, jumping and expecting it to be different. It is NEVER different."
In April 1986 an opinion piece by Baltazar A. Acevedo Jr in "The Dallas Morning News" of Texas included the saying: [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 Earth News)
I once heard insanity defined as a process by which an individual or a arrangement does something over and over again in the same style while yet expecting different results. To continue to evaluate and accost issues in our customs strictly along ethnic, instead of human, considerations is insane if only for one reason: Information technology volition pb to the polarization that is the standard of paranoid societies.
The 1988 book "Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent Globe" included an example: [13] 1988 Copyright, Raising Cocky-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent World: Vii 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 bend when we find ourselves in unworkable positions. A universal feature of insanity is inflexibly doing the same thing over and over while hoping for different results. Flexibility in the confront of irresolute circumstances, by contrast, is a hallmark of mental health.
Past 1990 the saying was being attributed to Einstein. For example, the "Austin American-Statesman" of Austin, Texas published the following remark made past Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle: [14] 1990 November 19, Austin American-Statesman, Section: News, Prison house Puzzle – Threat of cost explosion poses difficult choices by Mike Ward, Quote Folio A1, Austin, Texas. (NewsBank Access World … Continue reading
Einstein in one case said that insanity is doing the aforementioned thing over and over and expecting a different result.
In 1991 "The Seattle Times" printed the thoughts of an Indiana estimate who ascribed some other version of the maxim to Einstein: [15] 1991 July 4, The Seattle Times, Section: Editorial, Getting Out of the Freedom Business by Don Williamson, Quote Page A8, Seattle, Washington. (NewsBank Access World News)
The jurist from the Hoosier Land subscribes to Albert Einstein'southward definition of insanity: "doing the same matter over and over and expecting a different effect."
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 different outcome.' If nosotros repeatedly have difficulties in an surface area of life, doesn't it make sense that our behaviors cause the bug?
In 2016 the webcomic "xkcd" depicted two characters conversing; the first mentioned the at present well-known definition of insanity, and the second replied with a remark that implicitly and cleverly applied the logic of the definition to his companion: [17] Website: xkcd Comic, Comic title: Insanity, Comic author: Randall Munroe, Date on website: March 18, 2016, Website description: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. (Accessed xkcd.com … Go along reading
You've been quoting that cliché for years. Has information technology convinced anyone to change their mind yet?
In conclusion, based on current evidence the saying originated in one of the twelve-step communities. Anonymity is profoundly valued in these communities, and no specific writer has been identified by the many researchers who have explored the provenance of this aphorism. The linkage to Albert Einstein occurred many years after his death and is unsupported.
Prototype Notes: Two arrows pointing at one some other 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 formulate 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 thanks to Bill Mullins who located the of import October 11, 1981 citation.)
Update History: On July 31, 2019 the October 11, 1981 citation was added to the commodity.
barryanguareany1983.blogspot.com
Source: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/
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