In Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton describes heresies as virtues gone wild and then attempts to connect a few dots to historical examples.
When a religious scheme is shattered (as Christianity was shattered at the Reformation), it is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad.
Was this an original idea he had. Most people think of heresies as something incorrect or lacking, but adopting GKC's mindset that the heretical thing isn't what's lacking, it's everything else that is lacking seems to me both a good way to dialogue and a good way to understand orthodoxy in light of classical heresies.
Is this simply one of many of his original musings or does the idea have roots in Christian thought?