A new biography of the dictionary pioneer Samuel Johnson suggests that he suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Stockholm, Asperger’s and Tietze’s syndromes all at the same time.
The symptoms became clear when Johnson returned from doing the weekly shop: ‘He put his tins away according to the space ‘e had in the cupboards,’ recalls a former housemaid, who remembers her illustrious employer coming downstairs in the night to put the cat out. ‘He’d come downstairs, and get all upset if it’d peed on his new rug. Then he’d be off back to bed – madness it was. You didn’t worry about things like that where I was brought up, e’s lucky e wasn’t locked up.’
The text of Johnson’s diaries also suggest that he was not accustomed to talking through his emotions with male friends and that he developed a rigid daily routine. ‘E’d get up in the morning, have a wash, eat some breakfast and he’d be away in ‘is study working til lunchtime. Then he’d come downstairs and eat again before working through until sundown. No stoppin’ im there was. Then he’d eat dinner, talk to his cats, go to bed, wake up and do the whole thing over again. Relentless it was. Sometimes e even had a drink or two in him. Feared for me ‘ealth in that place I did.’
The book, released to coincide with his 800th anniversary – and titled ‘Nobody Puts Dictionary In The Corner: The Life Of Samuel Johnson’ – is due out next week.
News hour, with Jerry Caesar 