Daco,
Just watched this flick last night, without any knowledge of your post. JonnyRadar stumbled upon it a few days ago and suggested it may be of interest. Funny how that works.
When listening to the stories of each of these men, it reminded me of something I read, just recently, about
Plato's Cave.
In the allegory of the cave, people are chained in place inside a dark cave, so that they cannot turn their heads and are forced to watch shadows projected on the cave wall. These shadows are cast by shapes which parade in front of a fire at the other end of the cave. This is a sort of archaic movie theater. The people imprisoned in the cave mistake the shadows for reality and invent fanciful theories for explaining the various types of shadows, discuss them, place bets on their appearances and movements and so forth.
If one of these captives were released, he could see the fire and the shapes parading before it. But further still, he could escape entirely from the cave and see the outer world. First, the outer world would have to be seen at night, the eyes not being adapted to the brightness of the day. Progressively, the released captive could see the outside world in full daylight and even make out the contours of the Sun itself. If now this adventurer were to return to the cave, the other captives would believe no part of his story. And if by malchance he would have become less interested in or less adept at speculating about the shadows on the wall, the other captives would take this to be the proof of actual madness. Such is the fate of seers.
As I viewed the documentary, these "mad" men could be compared to that of the released captive, he who broke outside of the limited and set environment, and those that still remained in the cave, could be in turn their "sheltered" colleagues.
It's often in "everyday life" that I engage in conversations with individuals who at times I believe are "pretty hip" people, those who appear to have knowledge greater than your average bear, those that seem to have a critical mind, only later to be baffled by their irrational comments or groundless beliefs on something that to me, is plainly evident. So baffling at times its maddening.
Am-I-the-only-one-that-sees-this kind of thought.
If this is just a microcosm of a greater dynamic, it's imaginable that these great minds like Cantor, Blotzmann, Godel, and Turing, would "lose it" if their academic peers showed such opposition towards their thoughts and discoveries. Especially those discoveries that shape how we view the world we live in. As Aldous Huxley said, ""Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad."
Re-reading what I wrote above reminds me of how important a
network is, refering to the "work" or on the path to new discoveries in general. From what I remember from "Dangerous Knowledge," many, if not all, of these mathematicians spent much of their time in solidarity.
At the moment I cannot quote any psychologist, author, or idea as to the possible reason's behind their suicides, but I can say, from my limited experience thus far, that... without companions as sounding boards or mirrors, friends that are open to possibilities and Working to be un-corralled by beliefs... my journey towards discoveries may have been a bit darker and less filled with hope.