Who Said the Problem Is Doing 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 Dark-brown? John Larroquette? Jessie Potter? Werner Erhard?
Beloved Quote Investigator: It's foolish to repeat ineffective actions. One pop conception presents this point harshly:
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
These words are unremarkably credited to the acclaimed genius Albert Einstein. What exercise you think?
Quote Investigator: There is no noun evidence that Einstein wrote or spoke the argument to a higher place. It is listed within a section called "Misattributed to Einstein" in the comprehensive reference "The Ultimate Quotable Einstein" from Princeton University Printing. [i] 2010, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited by Alice Calaprice, Section: Misattributed to Einstein, Quote Folio 474, Princeton Academy Printing, Princeton, New Bailiwick of jersey. (Verified on paper)
The primeval strong match known to QI appeared in October 1981 within a Knoxville, Tennessee newspaper commodity describing a meeting of Al-Anon, an system 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 paper began with these ii steps: [2] 1981 October eleven, The Knoxville News-Sentinel Al-Anon Helps Family, Friends to Orderly Lives by Betsy Pickle (Living Today Staff Writer), Quote Page F17, Column 2, Knoxville, Tennessee. (GenealogyBank)
Stride 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had go unmanageable.
Step ii: Came to believe that a Ability greater than ourselves could restore u.s. to sanity
One of the attendees at the meeting hesitated to accept the accurateness of 2d stride. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:
Not all the women are willing to acknowledge they needed to be "restored to sanity." In fact, one of them adamantly maintains that she had never reached a point of insanity. But another remarks, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting unlike results."
The second earliest strong match known to QI appeared in a pamphlet printed by the Narcotics Bearding organization in November 1981: [3] 1981, Narcotics Anonymous Pamphlet, (Basic Text Approval Class, Unpublished Literary Work), Chapter Four: How It Works, Step Two, Folio eleven, Printed November 1981, Copyright 1981, W.Due south.C.-Literature … Continue reading
The toll may seem higher for the addict who prostitutes for a ready than it is for the aficionado who only lies to a doctor, but ultimately both pay with their lives. Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting dissimilar results.
QI acquired a PDF of the document with the quotation in a higher place on the website amonymifoundation.org dorsum in February 2011. The document stated that is was printed in Nov 1981, and it had a 1981 copyright notice. The website was subsequently reorganized, just the document remains available via the Internet Archive Wayback Car database.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
The linkage between insanity and repetition has a long history. The controversial book "Degeneration" by Max Nordau was published in German in 1892 and translated into English by 1895. Nordau examined the works of a multifariousness 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 Work), Quote Folio 238, D. Appleton and Company. (Google Books Full View) link
Has anyone anywhere in the poesy of the two worlds ever seen such complete idiocy? These 'Ahs' and 'Ohs,' this want of comprehension of the simplest remarks, this repetition 4 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 past Maeterlinck's admirers.
When George Bernard Shaw reviewed Nordau's opus he turned the criticism of repetition dorsum upon the writer and suggested that Nordau might diagnose himself as mentally unsound: [v] 1895 July 27, Liberty, Volume 11, Number 6, A Degenerate'due south View of Nordau by Bernard Shaw, Quote Page two, Cavalcade 1, Published by Benj. R Tucker, New York. (Reprint in 1970 by Greenwood Reprint … Go on reading
I have read Max Nordau'due south "Degeneration" at your request,—two hundred and sixty thousand mortal words, maxim the same thing over and over again. That, as yous know, is the style to drive a matter into the mind of the world, though Nordau considers it a symptom of insane "obsession" on the part of writers who do not share his ain opinions. His message to the world is that all our characteristically modern works of fine art are symptoms of disease 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 maxim nether investigation although information technology employed a different vocabulary: [vi] 1955, The Psychology of Personal Constructs by George A. Kelly, Volume 2: Clinical Diagnosis and Psychotherapy, Quote Folio 831, Published past W. W. Norton & Visitor, New York. (Verified on newspaper)
From the standpoint of the psychology of personal constructs we may define a disorder every bit whatsoever personal structure which is used repeatedly in spite of consistent invalidation. This is an unusual definition, as psychological thinking unremarkably goes.
In October 1981 an educator and counselor on family relationships delivered a speech containing a thematically related adage: [7] 1981 Oct 24, The Milwaukee Sentinel, Search For Quality Chosen Fundamental To Life by Tom Ahern, Quote Page 5, Cavalcade 5, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Google News Archive)
"If you ever practice what y'all've always washed, you e'er become what you've always gotten." That was the advice of Jessie Potter, the featured speaker at Friday's opening of the seventh almanac Woman to Woman conference.
More information about the quotation in a higher place is bachelor here.
In October 1981 the saying was spoken by an attendee of an Al-Anon meeting as noted previously:
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over once more and expecting unlike results.
In Nov 1981 a pamphlet from Narcotics Bearding contained a close friction match as noted previously:
Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.
The 1983 novel "Sudden Death" past Rita Mae Brown included an case credited to Jane Fulton who was a character within the book: [viii] 1983, Sudden Expiry by Rita Mae Brownish, Chapter 4, Quote Folio 68, Published by Bantam Books, New York. (Verified with scans)
The trouble with Susan was that she made the aforementioned 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, ordinarily afterward a twelvemonth or so, she'd observe another woman.
Unfortunately, Susan didn't remember what Jane Fulton once said. "Insanity is doing the aforementioned thing over and over again, but expecting different results."
A June 1983 volume review of "Sudden Expiry" in "The Clarion-Ledger" of Jackson, Mississippi reprinted the saying: [ix] 1983 June 19, The Clarion-Ledger, "Sudden Decease" a complex metaphor by Stephen 50. Silberman, (Book review of "Sudden Death" past Rita Mae Brown), Quote Page 7H, Column 2, … Proceed reading
Women's lawn tennis gets a thorough dissecting in this story. Jane Fulton is the disquisitional sports writer who contends "Modernistic professional sports rewards players for office instead of character. Responsibility is usually defined as doing a job amend than anyone else." She looks askance at professional tennis and says "Win and go 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 once again, but expecting unlike results."
As well 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 old. Nothing else always. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try over again. Neglect over again. Fail better.
In January 1986 the Emmy-winning histrion John Larroquette who was a star in the television comedy series "Night Court" shared the definition during a paper interview: [11] 1986 January 5, The Sydney Morning Herald, Television with Jacqueline Lee Lewes: From drugs, potable 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 different results. Like jumping out of a forty-storey building, breaking every os, spending half-dozen months in hospital, going back to the same building, upwards to the 39th floor, jumping and expecting it to be different. It is NEVER dissimilar."
In April 1986 an opinion slice past Baltazar A. Acevedo Jr in "The Dallas Morn 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 one time heard insanity defined as a process by which an private or a system does something over and over again in the same mode while yet expecting unlike results. To continue to evaluate and address problems in our community strictly along ethnic, instead of human, considerations is insane if simply for one reason: It will atomic number 82 to the polarization that is the standard of paranoid societies.
The 1988 volume "Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent World" included an example: [13] 1988 Copyright, Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Cocky-Indulgent World: Vii Building Blocks for Developing Capable Immature People past H. Stephen Glenn and Jane Nelsen, Quote Page 174, Published by … Continue reading
Flexibility is the ability to bend when we find ourselves in unworkable positions. A universal characteristic of insanity is inflexibly doing the aforementioned thing over and over while hoping for unlike results. Flexibility in the face of irresolute circumstances, by contrast, is a hallmark of mental wellness.
By 1990 the saying was being attributed to Einstein. For instance, the "Austin American-Statesman" of Austin, Texas published the following remark made by Travis County Commune Attorney Ronnie Earle: [14] 1990 November nineteen, Austin American-Statesman, Section: News, Prison Puzzle – Threat of toll explosion poses difficult choices by Mike Ward, Quote Folio A1, Austin, Texas. (NewsBank Admission Globe … Continue reading
Einstein once 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 judge who ascribed another version of the saying to Einstein: [fifteen] 1991 July four, The Seattle Times, Department: 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's definition of insanity: "doing the same affair over and over and expecting a dissimilar effect."
In 2000 a columnist working for the Knight Ridder News Service ascribed a version of the maxim to the influential lecturer and trainer Werner Erhard although the name was misspelled every bit "Erhart": [16] 2000 July 30, The Indianapolis Star, Go a plan to overcome trouble spots past Tim O'Brien (Knight Ridder News Service), Quote Folio J3, Column 1, Indianapolis, Indiana. (Newspapers_com)
Werner Erhart described insanity every bit 'repeating identical behavior and expecting a unlike consequence.' If we repeatedly take difficulties in an area of life, doesn't it make sense that our behaviors crusade the bug?
In 2016 the webcomic "xkcd" depicted 2 characters conversing; the first 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 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 … Proceed reading
Yous've been quoting that cliché for years. Has it convinced anyone to change their listen yet?
In decision, based on current prove the saying originated in one of the twelve-step communities. Anonymity is profoundly 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 later on his death and is unsupported.
Paradigm Notes: Ii arrows pointing at one another from OpenClipart-Vectors at Pixabay. Portrait of Albert Einstein circa 1921 by Ferdinand Schmutzer accessed via Wikimedia Commons. 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 Bearding citation. Also, thank you to the valuable inquiry conducted by Barry Popik, Ben Zimmer, and Daniel Gackle. Many thanks to Bill Mullins who located the important October 11, 1981 citation.)
Update History: On July 31, 2019 the October eleven, 1981 commendation was added to the article.
Source: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/
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