Booth's Mental health

[Juan Marrero]

Mrs. Verge: one book (I think it was the one about his troubled relationship with Edwin) goes the full Freud/Oedipus route and suggests that he identified the South with his suffering mother Mary Ann and President Lincoln with his father. He saw mother/South as refined and AL/North as uncouth and aggressive.

According to this theory, he stepped in stop further "abuse" in the only way he could. If this carries any weight, it could explain his reluctance to use the name "Booth" in his initial theatrical forays as being beyond simple humility and/or deference to his father's reputation as a Shakespearian genius..