Without medical records that he hasn't released, we can't know whether Gingrich may have inherited his mother's manic depression. Nevertheless, one observes in the former House Speaker certain symptoms - bouts of grandiosity, megalomania, irritability, racing thoughts, spending sprees - that go beyond the ordinary politician's normal narcissism.

I think that people who live in cultures without quite so much privilege opportunity or grandiosity have a little bit more respect for the workings of destiny and the limitations that people can find themselves in through no fault of their own.