John C. Bucknill papers

Sir John Charles Bucknill (1817-1897), a distinguished English physician, spent his entire life in the treatment of the mentally insane. First educated at Rugby, Bucknill entered University College, London, in 1835 and studied medicine. In 1840 he became a member of The Royal College of Surgeons of England and in the same year graduated M.B. from the University of London. He acquired his M.D. in 1852.

Bucknill held several important public medical positions until he devoted himself to private practice in 1876. He took an enlightened view of the methods to be adopted in the treatment of the insane and advised that the more wealthy among them should be cared for in their own homes, that they might enjoy life as much as possible. Sir James Crichton Browne said of him that "For twenty years he was the acknowledged and dignified head of his department in this country, and mingled on equal footing with all the finest intellects of his time." In general literature he put his knowledge of psychology and insanity to good use by writing two books on Shakespeare and his works. In them Bucknill dealt with the psychology of the dramatist and of the mad people depicted in Shakespeare's plays. Among the doctor's published works are "Unsoundness of Mind in Relation to Criminal Acts" (1854), A Manual of Psychological Medicine (1858), The Psychology of Shakespeare (1859), The Medical Knowledge of Shakespeare (1860), and Habitual Drunkenness and Insane Drunkards (1878). He also helped to found "Brain: a Journal of Neurology" in 1878. Bucknill was knighted in 1866 and died in 1894.