Booth's Mental health

[Mylye2222]

(05-14-2015 02:28 PM)Juan Marrero Wrote:  I am still reading "Fortune's Fool" and learning quite alot.

As I read it, I keep thinking that Booth possibly suffered from a borderline personality disorder--a very inflated sense of self, volatile and destructive personal relationships, rapid mood swings and a tendency towards despair. This is certainly not new ground for I am sure that his mental state has already been brought up and discussed. Morever, anyone who shoots an American president has to be, almost by defintion, crazy.

At the very least, he was an adrenalin junkie. Hard to believe how many times he was stabbed, cut, shot, etc. His reckless sword play on stage suggests someone barely in control of himself. Did he have to drive himself that hard just to feel anything?

It's a wonder that he did not (apparently) drink as much as his father did. Someone living at such speed would llikely look for a liquid or chemical way to come down at the end of the day.

As an aside, I think that JWB looks physically much like Lee H. Oswald in the photo in which Booth is photographed with his two brothers wearing Roman togas.

Agree with your psycho analysis.
Booth seems to have been also a man craving for approval and esteem from his society. That's maybe why he wanted to get Lincoln only with a large crowd around. He wanted a show. Another type of profile would and could have simply used, for instance, the White House office hours.