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Byron the romantic rebel 'was a psychopath'

By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent

LORD BYRON, the poet who scandalised England with his hellraising exploits, was actually a psychopath, according to new research by a leading psychiatrist.

George Gordon, the sixth Baron Byron, was famed throughout Europe for the dramatic personal style of his poetry and his biting satires. He also became notorious for his dissolute way of life, propelled by drink and drugs, which led to a broken marriage, claims that he slept with hundreds of women - and debts equivalent to at least £600,000 today.

Literary scholars have argued that Byron was a tortured genius, struck down with regular bouts of depression. Now, a detailed study of his behaviour has led to a less romantic diagnosis: that the poet exhibited so-called anti-social personality disorder - the technical term for a psychopath.

Professor Michael Fitzgerald, a psychiatrist at the Beside Health Centre in Dublin, reached his conclusion after examining accounts of Byron's life. Born in 1788, the poet had an unstable upbringing - seen as a key factor in the development of psychopathy.

The abandoned son of John "Mad Jack" Byron, a wastrel who fled to France to avoid debts, Byron was raised by his emotionally volatile mother Catherine Gordon, and appears to have been denied emotional warmth at a critical stage in his development. As a child, he showed symptoms of emerging psychopathy: habitual lying, a callous disregard for others, truanting and random acts of cruelty - including sticking pins into his mother as she prayed in chapel.

He was expelled from Harrow because of his contempt for authority, and spent only a term at Cambridge before descending into a life of debauchery in London. After achieving fame at the age of 24 with his dramatic poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, he was able to indulge his passions to ever greater excess. He eventually fled England to escape debts and a ruined marriage. He settled in Italy, embarked on more affairs and made his extravagant life the source for his most famous work, the satirical poem Don Juan. After a spell helping the fight for Greek independence, he died of fever, aged 36.

The poet's psychopathic behaviour may have begun as so-called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) inherited from his ancestors, said Prof Fitzgerald. "When one examines his family tree, one finds plenty of rakes, spendthrifts, melancholics and eccentrics," he pointed out. "He had a tremendous appetite for sensation, and of course many persons with ADHD are novelty-seeking."

By the time Byron reached adulthood, however, full-blown psychopathy had emerged. Prof Fitzgerald said: "There's no doubt he had a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others. His impulsivity could be seen in his extreme promiscuity." Writing in the Journal of Medical Biography, Prof Fitzgerald argues that Byron's poetry may have benefited from his psychiatric problems. "Persons with ADHD can be highly creative."

A leading authority on Byron, Prof Malcolm Kelsall, of Cardiff University's School of English, said such a mental condition tied in well with the themes of the poet's works. Prof Kelsall said: "The way he used language was tremendously subversive - he's a great rebel. That has made him tremendously attractive with revolutionary movements throughout Europe."

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001