Non-child fates, or Where do prodigies disappear when they grow up

From time to time, there are reports in the media about unusual children, extremely gifted from birth. Pavel Konoplev, Nika Turbina, Nadia Rusheva, Andrey Khlopin, Evgeny Kisin — their talents make the whole world applaud, and the IQ level sometimes exceeds the average adult. But what happens to geeks when they grow up? Their future fate is rarely discussed.

Unfortunately, the fate of many prodigies develops tragically, especially when the press shows increased interest in their personalities. Many do not stand the test of fame, but most often do not cope with the burden of responsibility before the inflated expectations of society. "The syndrome of a former child prodigy" is what psychologists call a specific neurosis, which is expressed in painful self—esteem, the desire to constantly demonstrate their abilities, continuously assert themselves.

In the 1980s, newspapers often wrote about Pasha Konopleva. At the age of 3 he learned to read and make complex calculations in his mind, at the age of 5 he learned to play the piano on his own, at the age of 8 he solved complex physical problems. At 15 he was already a student at a Moscow university, at 18 he was a graduate student.

Unfortunately, the young man's psyche could not withstand the overload — he ended up in a psychiatric hospital, from where he never came out. He died of pulmonary thrombosis when he was only 29 years old.

According to statistics, gifted people live 10-15 years less. Genius is often accompanied by such ailments as autism, schizophrenia, nervous disorders and insomnia. There are more suicides among geeks than among ordinary teenagers. Child prodigies are often unable to adapt to the society around them. Confirmation of this is the tragic fate of Niki Turbina.

At the age of 4 she wrote non-childish poems, at the age of 9 she released her first poetry collection "Draft", translated into 12 languages, with a circulation of 30,000 copies. She was known all over the world. But the grown-up Nika never found her place in society and at the age of 27 threw herself out of the window.

Nadia Rusheva started drawing at the age of 5. She illustrated children's fairy tales, works of classical literature, ballets invented by her. In total, she left behind more than 10 thousand drawings. Her first solo exhibition took place when she was 12. In the next 5 years, 15 more exhibitions took place.

At the age of 17, her life was suddenly cut short by a brain hemorrhage — it turned out that Nadia had a congenital defect in one of the cerebral vessels.

Unfortunately, the successful realization of a child prodigy in adulthood is rather an exception to the rule. But there are also such cases. Andrei Khlopin was talked about in 2007, when he got into the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest author of three scientific hypotheses — "The Third hypothesis of the origin of the asteroid belt", "Phaeton was inhabited", "Tunguska meteorite — space iceberg". At that time, the boy was only 10 years old.

Now Andrey talks about astronomy classes as a childhood hobby. In high school, he started boxing, became interested in history and law, and entered the Faculty of Law.

Only 10% of child prodigies can develop a secondary, adult talent. Evgeny Kisin became famous at the age of 10 by performing Mozart's 20th Concerto with the orchestra.

A year later he gave his first solo concert. In 1985, Kissin went abroad for the first time with concerts.

Now he is over fifty, he lives in Paris and conducts intensive concert activities in Europe, Asia and America, invariably collecting full houses.