The Process of Doinh the Same.thing Over and Over Again and Expecting Different Results
Albert Einstein? Al-Anon? Narcotics Anonymous? Max Nordau? George Bernard Shaw? Samuel Beckett? George A. Kelly? Rita Mae Chocolate-brown? John Larroquette? Jessie Potter? Werner Erhard?
Honey Quote Investigator: It's foolish to echo ineffective actions. One popular formulation presents this point harshly:
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a unlike result.
These words are usually credited to the acclaimed genius Albert Einstein. What do you recall?
Quote Investigator: At that place is no substantive show that Einstein wrote or spoke the statement to a higher place. It is listed within a section chosen "Misattributed to Einstein" in the comprehensive reference "The Ultimate Quotable Einstein" from Princeton Academy Printing. [1] 2010, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited past Alice Calaprice, Department: Misattributed to Einstein, Quote Folio 474, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. (Verified on paper)
The primeval strong match known to QI appeared in October 1981 inside a Knoxville, Tennessee newspaper article describing a meeting of Al-Anon, an organization designed to help the families of alcoholics. The journalist described the "Twelve Steps" of Al-Betimes which are based on similar steps employed in Alcoholics Anonymous. The newspaper began with these two steps: [2] 1981 October 11, The Knoxville News-Sentinel Al-Anon Helps Family unit, Friends to Orderly Lives by Betsy Pickle (Living Today Staff Writer), Quote Page F17, Cavalcade 2, Knoxville, Tennessee. (GenealogyBank)
Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had go unmanageable.
Footstep 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity
1 of the attendees at the meeting hesitated to accept the accuracy of second step. Emphasis added to excerpts past QI:
Not all the women are willing to admit they needed to be "restored to sanity." In fact, one of them adamantly maintains that she had never reached a point of insanity. Simply another remarks, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
The 2d earliest strong match known to QI appeared in a pamphlet printed by the Narcotics Anonymous organization in Nov 1981: [3] 1981, Narcotics Anonymous Pamphlet, (Basic Text Approving Course, Unpublished Literary Work), Chapter Four: How It Works, Footstep Two, Folio 11, Printed November 1981, Copyright 1981, W.S.C.-Literature … Continue reading
The price may seem higher for the addict who prostitutes for a fix than information technology is for the addict who just lies to a dr., but ultimately both pay with their lives. Insanity is repeating the aforementioned mistakes and expecting different results.
QI acquired a PDF of the document 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 find. The website was subsequently reorganized, but the document remains available via the Internet Archive Wayback Auto database.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
The linkage betwixt insanity and repetition has a long history. The controversial book "Degeneration" by Max Nordau was published in German language in 1892 and translated into English by 1895. Nordau examined the works of a variety of artists and savagely attacked those that independent repetition which he believed evinced a mental defect in the creator. For example, he criticized Maurice Maeterlinck'south "La Princesse Maleine": [4] 1895 Copyright, Degeneration by 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 want of comprehension of the simplest remarks, this repetition four or five times of the aforementioned imbecile expressions, gives the truest conceivable clinical picture of incurable cretinism. These parts are precisely those most extolled past Maeterlinck's admirers.
When George Bernard Shaw reviewed Nordau'southward 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, Book 11, Number vi, A Degenerate's View of Nordau past Bernard Shaw, Quote Folio ii, Column one, Published past Benj. R Tucker, New York. (Reprint in 1970 by Greenwood Reprint … Proceed reading
I have read Max Nordau's "Degeneration" at your request,—two hundred and sixty m mortal words, proverb the same thing over and over again. That, as you know, is the manner to drive 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 message to the world is that all our characteristically modernistic works of art are symptoms of affliction in the artists, and that these diseased artists are themselves symptoms of the nervous exhaustion of the race by overwork.
The 1955 book "The Psychology of Personal Constructs" by George A. Kelly included a definition that corresponded to the saying under investigation although it employed a different vocabulary: [6] 1955, The Psychology of Personal Constructs by George A. Kelly, Volume ii: Clinical Diagnosis and Psychotherapy, Quote Page 831, Published past West. West. Norton & Company, New York. (Verified on paper)
From the standpoint of the psychology of personal constructs we may ascertain a disorder as any personal structure which is used repeatedly in spite of consistent invalidation. This is an unusual definition, every bit psychological thinking ordinarily goes.
In October 1981 an educator and advisor on family unit relationships delivered a speech containing a thematically related aphorism: [7] 1981 October 24, The Milwaukee Lookout, Search For Quality Called Cardinal To Life past Tom Ahern, Quote Page 5, Column 5, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Google News Annal)
"If you lot e'er practice what you've ever done, you e'er get what you lot've always gotten." That was the advice of Jessie Potter, the featured speaker at Fri's opening of the seventh almanac Woman to Woman conference.
More information about the quotation higher up is available hither.
In October 1981 the saying was spoken by an attendee of an Al-Betimes meeting every bit noted previously:
Insanity is doing the same affair over and again and expecting different results.
In November 1981 a pamphlet from Narcotics Anonymous contained a shut match as noted previously:
Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.
The 1983 novel "Sudden Death" by Rita Mae Brownish included an case credited to Jane Fulton who was a graphic symbol within the volume: [viii] 1983, Sudden Decease past Rita Mae Dark-brown, Chapter iv, Quote Page 68, Published by Runted Books, New York. (Verified with scans)
The trouble with Susan was that she made the same mistakes repeatedly. She'd fall in dearest with a adult female and consume her. Susan idea that her mere presence was enough. What more was there to give? When she tired, commonly after a year or and then, she'd find some other woman.
Unfortunately, Susan didn't remember what Jane Fulton once said. "Insanity is doing the same thing over and once more, just expecting unlike results."
A June 1983 book review of "Sudden Death" in "The Clarion-Ledger" of Jackson, Mississippi reprinted the saying: [ix] 1983 June 19, The Clarion-Ledger, "Sudden Death" a complex metaphor past Stephen L. Silberman, (Book review of "Sudden Death" past Rita Mae Brown), Quote Page 7H, Cavalcade 2, … Go on reading
Women's lawn tennis gets a thorough dissecting in this story. Jane Fulton is the critical sports writer who contends "Modern professional person sports rewards players for function instead of character. Responsibility is normally divers equally doing a job better than anyone else." She looks askance at professional tennis and says "Win and get a god. Lose and be forgotten." Finally later following the lives and careers of the players, and the game itself, she concludes, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and 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 by Samuel Beckett, Quote Folio 7, Grove Press Inc., New York. (Verified with scans)
All of old. Nothing else ever. E'er tried. Always failed. No matter. Try again. Fail once more. Fail better.
In Jan 1986 the Emmy-winning thespian John Larroquette who was a star in the boob tube comedy series "Night Courtroom" shared the definition during a newspaper interview: [eleven] 1986 Jan five, The Sydney Morn Herald, Television with Jacqueline Lee Lewes: From drugs, drink to… Night Court: 'Confessions of an Emmy Star, Quote Page 31, Column 3, Sydney, New … Go along reading
He pops in a definition of insanity – "It's the repetition of the aforementioned action expecting dissimilar results. Like jumping out of a 40-storey building, breaking every bone, spending six months in infirmary, going dorsum to the same building, up to the 39th flooring, jumping and expecting information technology to exist different. It is NEVER different."
In April 1986 an opinion piece by Baltazar A. Acevedo Jr in "The Dallas Morning time News" of Texas included the saying: [12] 1986 Apr 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 in one case heard insanity defined as a process by which an individual or a system does something over and once again in the same style while all the same expecting different results. To proceed to evaluate and address issues in our customs strictly along indigenous, instead of human, considerations is insane if only for one 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 World" included an instance: [13] 1988 Copyright, Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent World: 7 Edifice Blocks for Developing Capable Young People by H. Stephen Glenn and Jane Nelsen, Quote Folio 174, Published by … Continue reading
Flexibility is the power to bend when we find ourselves in unworkable positions. A universal feature of insanity is inflexibly doing the same affair over and over while hoping for different results. Flexibility in the confront of changing circumstances, by contrast, is a hallmark of mental health.
By 1990 the maxim was existence attributed to Einstein. For instance, the "Austin American-Statesman" of Austin, Texas published the following remark made by Travis County Commune Chaser Ronnie Earle: [xiv] 1990 November 19, Austin American-Statesman, Section: News, Prison Puzzle – Threat of price explosion poses difficult choices by Mike Ward, Quote Page A1, Austin, Texas. (NewsBank Admission World … Continue reading
Einstein in one case said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
In 1991 "The Seattle Times" printed the thoughts of an Indiana judge who ascribed another version of the saying to Einstein: [15] 1991 July 4, The Seattle Times, Section: Editorial, Getting Out of the Liberty Business by Don Williamson, Quote Page A8, Seattle, Washington. (NewsBank Admission World News)
The jurist from the Hoosier State subscribes to Albert Einstein's 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": [sixteen] 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 every bit 'repeating identical behavior and expecting a unlike issue.' If we repeatedly have difficulties in an surface area of life, doesn't information technology make sense that our behaviors cause the problems?
In 2022 the webcomic "xkcd" depicted two characters conversing; the starting time mentioned the now well-known definition of insanity, and the 2nd 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 author: Randall Munroe, Date on website: March 18, 2016, Website description: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and linguistic communication. (Accessed xkcd.com … Continue reading
You lot've been quoting that cliché for years. Has it convinced anyone to change their mind yet?
In conclusion, based on current evidence the saying originated in one of the twelve-footstep communities. Anonymity is greatly valued in these communities, and no specific author has been identified by the many researchers who take 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 past Ferdinand Schmutzer accessed via Wikimedia Commons. Images have been retouched, cropped and resized.
(Dandy 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, thanks to the valuable research conducted by Barry Popik, Ben Zimmer, and Daniel Gackle. Many thank you to Bill Mullins who located the important October 11, 1981 citation.)
Update History: On July 31, 2022 the October xi, 1981 commendation was added to the article.
Source: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/
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