The Professor And The Madman Analysis

Simon Winchester’s book, The Professor and the Madman, is a tale of tragedy, insanity, and academia. The book tells the story of two men, Dr. James Murray and Dr. William C. Minor. These men were very similar in nature, but led very different lives due to circumstances of environment and mental health. Dr. Murray was a lifelong academic, always pursuing education. Dr. Minor was a surgeon for the Union Army in the United States Civil War, who grew increasingly madder until he murdered a man in the streets of London, which caused him to be confined in an asylum for almost the rest of his life. Although Dr. Murray and Dr. Minor’s lives and circumstances were quite different, they had one tie which brought them together and cultivated a chance friendship: The Oxford English Dictionary. Their story is an extremely important one, especially when it comes to history, …show more content…
This book covers, the writing and publication of the Oxford English Dictionary, but also advancements such as airplanes and when medical institutions stopped handwriting reports and started typing them. The Professor and the Madman serves as a window into a period of transition in the history of the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. Prior to and during Dr. Minor’s lifetime, mental illnesses were largely thought of as demonic possessions. Since the conversations surrounding mental illnesses were heavily shrouded with negative stigma, the topic was rendered unacceptable during proper conversations. Dr. Minor’s story illustrates how those who suffer from mental illness are often misunderstood and stigmatized. While today it is common knowledge that mental illness does not stem from mental instability or a lack of intelligence, in the nineteenth century, mental illnesses were seen as possessions or as afflictions of the weak minded or