Tom Mac,
You asked, "I'm no doctor, but couldn't there be a million reasons why he behaved the way he did?" No, not a million
, but obviously more than one.
"From what I understand bipolar disorder is something relatively new, recently idenitified and recognized and has a pretty broad net..." That is incorrect. Bipolar Disorder has been diagnosed as such for many years by that title and even many more going back well into the 1800's as Manic Depression. It's "recent identification" as you put it, has to do with the better understanding that we now have as to the causes and symptom's that define it and the notoriety that has been created by a number within the media and how they have reported it. It is a very, very real disorder that manifest's itself mildly in some and extreme in others.
It "is still somewhat controversial." While I agree with this statement it demands the question of exactly WHY is it controversial? The bottom line reason is that mental illness of any type is considered a taboo subject and when it is brought to the forefront for people in general it is done so in avenues that quite often misrepresent it. For example, both Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia, two illnesses that have many similarities of symptom's while also even more dissimilarities, are often portrayed in the movies and television shows as being what caused the "bad guy" to kill or hurt people. Whereas some mentally ill people have hurt innocent people, the overwhelmingly vast majority haven't and lead lives of quiet dignity.
"I'm not sure I understand what would be the purpose of diagnosing or suggesting a long gone historic figure may have sufferd from it." More than one person on here has asked that of you and your insistence upon bringing Crump's suicide to the fore, yet you defend it vigorously. Your statement gives the impression of inconsistency at the very least.
In Tilly's case there are far greater reasons for considering this possible illness and how it affected his life, but before going into that, i want to address Tom Doak's points.
Tom, you said, "It seems to me that you are making far more of the potential bipolar disorder than I would, because you have a personal connection to it."
I can completely understand why you think that. I readily admit that the idea of it was in part caused by seeing the effect's of the illness upon my own family. But for the same reason that I am more sensitive to it's effects I am also far more able to recognize it in others where many would miss it. It is just as when some doctors misdiagnose a particular illness simply because they are almost never exposed to someone with it. A cough is not simply a cough, yet it can also just be that while in others it heralds, lung cancer or aids or tuberculosis or an alergy.
You also said that, "Then again, I am satisfied with accepting the man's genius WITHOUT having to explain it, and without trying to make his genius even more stunning than someone else's."
I don't feel that I am trying to make Tilly's genius "more stunning than someone else's," rather I am trying to understand it, especially in light of how he has been portrayed for many years.
How often has someone both on here and in print referred to Tilly's drinking? or used the term "flask architecture" in reference to him? Didn't even his own family (Dr. Brown himself) write of Tilly's disappearances from his family for days at a time and hint at severe problems as the cause and the using this to underline how astonishing his accomplishments actually were?
The reason that I brought to light my belief that he was Bipoalr, and it is a disorder that I readily admit can only be a supposition in his case and NEVER diagnosed since he is dead, was because I had come to learn that much of how he had been portrayed were both incorrect and misunderstood. Since these dark sides of his were out there in this fashion I believed that history demanded that someone tell the real causes and truth if possible. That is why I wrote it.
In a sense, haven't you felt compelled to act in the same fashion when being critical of what you saw as either design flaws or poor work when describing courses by other architects in your Confidential Guide? You certainly felt a need to expose these and took a great deal of heat from some for doing so.
Certainly saying that someone poorly design a golf course is in no way the same as stating that one believes another to be mentally ill, but that is not really what I did. I gave it as the reason behind a number of his actions, and as you'll see when it comes out, that includes and explains his approach to the game of golf and his interests in deeply exploring so many aspects involving it including golf course architecture...