Mental Health
After his University education, Cruden was set to enter the church until his mental health was called into question and he was institutionalised. This was the first of several stays in psychiatric hospitals throughout his life.
Cruden's frequent institutionalisation is a matter of academic debate. Traditionally, Cruden's apparent madness has been interpreted as the other side of his focused brilliance. However Julia Keay argued that he was not mad, but he was initially put away in order to silence his criticisms of incestuous marriages among the nobility, and later by women who rejected his unwanted affections.
He paid unwelcome addresses to a widow which resulted in an enforced stay in Matthew Wright's Private Madhouse in Bethnal Green, London.
He attempted to prosecute those responsible for his confinement, and made a similar attempt when his sister had him institutionalised again in 1753, this time only for a few days. In April 1755 he printed a letter to The Speaker and other Members of the House of Commons, and about the same time an Address to the King and Parliament.
In September 1753, through being involved in a street brawl, he was confined in an asylum in Chelsea for seventeen days at the instance of his sister (Mrs. Isobella Wild of Middle Green Langley). He brought an unsuccessful action against his friends, and seriously proposed that they should go into confinement as an atonement.
In 1755 he paid unwelcome addresses to the daughter of Sir Thomas Abney, of Newington (1640–1722).
Read more about this topic: Alexander Cruden
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