The odd thing is that &#x27;disorder&#x27; might contribute to one&#x27;s ability to think &#x27;laterally&#x27;. Some schizophrenic tend to exhibit certain amounts of clanging. In extreme instances it turns into what&#x27;s referred to as &#x27;word salad&#x27; (presumably the desire to have the alliterative sounds overwhelms one to the point where one no longer cares about conveying meaning). At the same time, a &#x27;normal&#x27; mind definitely appreciates clanging when used as a well executed literary component (say, exhibited by Larkin or Cummings).<p>Schizophrenia is a real interesting mental disorder because it touches on so many other disorders (e.g. speech impediments like echolalia often seen in those on the autistic spectrum) and it&#x27;s tendency to exhibit itself relatively late in life (early to mid 20s is <i>very</i> late for on-set as I understand it re: mental disorders).<p>The <i>Post</i> did a pretty good job conveying a complicated concept in an approachable manner to those who aren&#x27;t in the field, but as always the primary source is useful, so here&#x27;s the pre-print: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pubmed&#x2F;26814963" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pubmed&#x2F;26814963</a><p>n.b. My father is in the field and I sent this to him when I saw the mention of Eric Lander (they worked together at Whitehead before Lander left to direct Broad). He regards Lander as highly as I regard DJB. Often the media blows things up, I&#x27;d imagine these findings are fairly major within their field, if only because it survived the peer-review process into <i>Nature</i>.