Insanity Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again Expecting Different Results

Albert Einstein? Al-Anon? Narcotics Anonymous? Max Nordau? George Bernard Shaw? Samuel Beckett? George A. Kelly? Rita Mae Brown? John Larroquette? Jessie Potter? Werner Erhard?

Dearest Quote Investigator: It's foolish to repeat ineffective actions. One popular formulation presents this signal harshly:

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over once more and expecting a unlike result.

These words are usually credited to the acclaimed genius Albert Einstein. What do you think?

Quote Investigator: There is no noun evidence that Einstein wrote or spoke the statement above. It is listed inside a section chosen "Misattributed to Einstein" in the comprehensive reference "The Ultimate Quotable Einstein" from Princeton Academy Press. ^[i] 2010, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited past Alice Calaprice, Section: Misattributed to Einstein, Quote Page 474, Princeton University Printing, Princeton, New Jersey. (Verified on newspaper)

The earliest stiff match known to QI appeared in October 1981 within a Knoxville, Tennessee newspaper article describing a meeting of Al-Anon, an organization designed to help the families of alcoholics. The announcer described the "Twelve Steps" of Al-Betimes which are based on similar steps employed in Alcoholics Anonymous. The newspaper began with these two steps: ^[two] 1981 October 11, The Knoxville News-Spotter Al-Anon Helps Family, Friends to Orderly Lives by Betsy Pickle (Living Today Staff Writer), Quote Folio F17, Column 2, Knoxville, Tennessee. (GenealogyBank)

Footstep 1: We admitted nosotros were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had go unmanageable.

Pace 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore united states of america to sanity

One of the attendees at the coming together hesitated to accept the accurateness of second step. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:

Not all the women are willing to acknowledge they needed to be "restored to sanity." In fact, 1 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 different results."

The second primeval potent match known to QI appeared in a pamphlet printed past the Narcotics Bearding organisation in November 1981: ^[3] 1981, Narcotics Bearding Pamphlet, (Basic Text Approval Form, Unpublished Literary Work), Chapter Four: How Information technology Works, Step Two, Page xi, Printed Nov 1981, Copyright 1981, Westward.S.C.-Literature … Continue reading

The price may seem higher for the addict who prostitutes for a set than information technology is for the addict who just lies to a physician, but 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 certificate stated that is was printed in November 1981, and it had a 1981 copyright notice. The website was subsequently reorganized, only the certificate remains available via the Internet Archive Wayback Auto database.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
The linkage between insanity and repetition has a long history. The controversial volume "Degeneration" by Max Nordau was published in High 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": ^[four] 1895 Copyright, Degeneration by Max Nordau (Max Simon Nordau) (Translated from the 2nd Edition of the German Work), Quote Page 238, D. Appleton and Visitor. (Google Books Full View) link

Has anyone anywhere in the poetry of the 2 worlds always seen such complete idiocy? These 'Ahs' and 'Ohs,' this want of comprehension of the simplest remarks, this repetition four or five times of the same imbecile expressions, gives the truest conceivable clinical motion-picture show of incurable cretinism. These parts are precisely those well-nigh extolled past Maeterlinck'south admirers.

When George Bernard Shaw reviewed Nordau's opus he turned the criticism of repetition back upon the writer and suggested that Nordau might diagnose himself as mentally unsound: ^[5] 1895 July 27, Liberty, Volume xi, Number 6, A Degenerate'south View of Nordau by Bernard Shaw, Quote Page 2, Column 1, Published by Benj. R Tucker, New York. (Reprint in 1970 by Greenwood Reprint … Proceed reading

I have read Max Nordau'southward "Degeneration" at your request,—two hundred and sixty 1000 mortal words, saying the aforementioned matter over and over once again. That, equally yous know, is the fashion to bulldoze a thing into the mind of the world, though Nordau considers information technology a symptom of insane "obsession" on the part of writers who exercise not share his own opinions. His bulletin to the world is that all our characteristically mod 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 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 it employed a unlike vocabulary: ^[6] 1955, The Psychology of Personal Constructs past George A. Kelly, Book 2: Clinical Diagnosis and Psychotherapy, Quote Folio 831, Published by Due west. Westward. Norton & Visitor, New York. (Verified on newspaper)

From the standpoint of the psychology of personal constructs we may define a disorder as whatsoever personal structure which is used repeatedly in spite of consequent invalidation. This is an unusual definition, as psychological thinking ordinarily goes.

In October 1981 an educator and advisor on family relationships delivered a speech communication containing a thematically related adage: ^[7] 1981 October 24, The Milwaukee Sentinel, Search For Quality Called Key To Life by Tom Ahern, Quote Page 5, Column v, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Google News Archive)

"If you lot always practice what you've always done, yous e'er get what you've e'er gotten." That was the communication of Jessie Potter, the featured speaker at Fri's opening of the seventh annual Adult female to Woman conference.

More information about the quotation above 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 again and expecting different results.

In Nov 1981 a pamphlet from Narcotics Anonymous contained a close match as noted previously:

Insanity is repeating the aforementioned mistakes and expecting dissimilar results.

The 1983 novel "Sudden Death" past Rita Mae Brown included an instance credited to Jane Fulton who was a grapheme within the book: ^[8] 1983, Sudden Death by Rita Mae Brownish, Chapter 4, Quote Page 68, Published past Bantam Books, New York. (Verified with scans)

The trouble with Susan was that she made the aforementioned mistakes repeatedly. She'd autumn in beloved with a woman and eat her. Susan thought that her mere presence was enough. What more was there to give? When she tired, ordinarily later a twelvemonth 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 over again, only expecting unlike results."

A June 1983 book review of "Sudden Expiry" in "The Clarion-Ledger" of Jackson, Mississippi reprinted the saying: ^[9] 1983 June 19, The Blaring-Ledger, "Sudden Expiry" a complex metaphor past Stephen Fifty. Silberman, (Book review of "Sudden Death" by Rita Mae Dark-brown), Quote Folio 7H, Cavalcade two, … Continue reading

Women'south tennis gets a thorough dissecting in this story. Jane Fulton is the disquisitional sports author who contends "Modern professional sports rewards players for function instead of character. Responsibility is normally defined equally doing a chore better than anyone else." She looks askance at professional tennis and says "Win and become a god. Lose and be forgotten." Finally after post-obit 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, 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": ^[ten] 1983, Worstward Ho by Samuel Beckett, Quote Folio 7, Grove Printing Inc., New York. (Verified with scans)

All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No affair. Try again. Fail again. Fail ameliorate.

In January 1986 the Emmy-winning actor John Larroquette who was a star in the idiot box comedy series "Night Courtroom" shared the definition during a paper interview: ^[eleven] 1986 January 5, The Sydney Morning Herald, Television with Jacqueline Lee Lewes: From drugs, drinkable to… Dark Court: 'Confessions of an Emmy Star, Quote Page 31, Column 3, Sydney, New … Go on reading

He pops in a definition of insanity – "Information technology'south the repetition of the same action expecting different results. Like jumping out of a forty-storey edifice, breaking every bone, spending six months in hospital, going back to the same building, upwardly to the 39th floor, jumping and expecting it to be different. It is NEVER different."

In Apr 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 Across Ethnicity Should Be 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 system does something over and over again in the same manner while yet expecting dissimilar results. To go along to evaluate and address issues in our customs strictly along ethnic, instead of human, considerations is insane if just 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 case: ^[13] 1988 Copyright, Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent Globe: Seven Building Blocks for Developing Capable Young People by H. Stephen Glenn and Jane Nelsen, Quote Page 174, Published by … Proceed reading

Flexibility is the ability to bend when we find ourselves in unworkable positions. A universal characteristic of insanity is inflexibly doing the same matter over and over while hoping for dissimilar results. Flexibility in the face of changing circumstances, by dissimilarity, is a authentication of mental health.

By 1990 the saying was beingness attributed to Einstein. For example, the "Austin American-Statesman" of Austin, Texas published the post-obit remark made past Travis County Commune Attorney Ronnie Earle: ^[xiv] 1990 November nineteen, Austin American-Statesman, Section: News, Prison Puzzle – Threat of cost explosion poses hard choices by Mike Ward, Quote Page A1, Austin, Texas. (NewsBank Access World … Go along reading

Einstein one time 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: ^[xv] 1991 July iv, 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 State subscribes to Albert Einstein's definition of insanity: "doing the same matter over and over and expecting a unlike upshot."

In 2000 a columnist working for the Knight Ridder News Service ascribed a version of the proverb to the influential lecturer and trainer Werner Erhard although the name was misspelled as "Erhart": ^[16] 2000 July thirty, The Indianapolis Star, Become a program to overcome problem spots by Tim O'Brien (Knight Ridder News Service), Quote Page J3, Column 1, Indianapolis, Indiana. (Newspapers_com)

Werner Erhart described insanity equally 'repeating identical beliefs and expecting a unlike result.' If we repeatedly have difficulties in an area of life, doesn't it make sense that our behaviors cause 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 title: Insanity, Comic author: Randall Munroe, Date on website: March eighteen, 2016, Website description: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. (Accessed xkcd.com … Continue reading

You've been quoting that cliche for years. Has it convinced anyone to change their heed all the same?

In conclusion, based on current testify the saying originated in one of the twelve-pace 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 afterwards his death and is unsupported.

Paradigm Notes: Two arrows pointing at 1 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 cheers to Bill Mullins who located the important October xi, 1981 citation.)

Update History: On July 31, 2019 the October xi, 1981 citation was added to the article.

Insanity Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again Expecting Different Results

Source: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/23/same/

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