An English psychiatrist looks at dangerousness.

Lady Caroline Lamb once wrote in her journal that Lord Byron was mad, bad, and dangerous to know. Presumably she was very angry with him and was searching for an appropriate set of pejorative words with which to describe him. All three words are significant in that we still describe people we don't like by combinations and modifications of these three concepts. Did others share Lady Lamb's view of him? No doubt some did, especially other ladies who were equally rejected. Does the concerted opinion of several individuals who have close knowledge of another one constitute validity? Would we agree that Lord Byron was mad, bad, and dangerous? If we would, how would we reconcile that with our knowledge that Byron was a significant romantic poet, who had a far-reaching influence on European literature and thought? Perhaps Lady Lamb was referring to Byron's temper tantrums. Perhaps the fact that Byron was one of the leaders of romanticism-a revolutionary movement in art, morals, politics, and religion-meant he was incomprehensible and dangerous to the established order of his time. Russell' regarded him as the forerunner to Nietzsche and as leaving behind him a legacy of nationalism, Satanism, and hero-worship that became part of the complex soul of Germany. A menace indeed if that were the case. However, it seems unlikely that Lady Lamb was referring to such matters in her little outburst. She probably had his propensity to hurt women's feelings more in mind.