The film, The Professor and the Madman (2019),
is based on the true story of James Murray, the editor of the first edition of
the Oxford English Dictionary in the 19th century, and William
Minor, who contributed over 10,000 entries. Minor, who suffered from schizophrenia,
was at the time a patient at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum for having
killed Jack Merrett under the recurrent delusion of being chased. In the film,
this narrative serves as the basis to explore whether even people who think
they are unredeemable can nevertheless be redeemed, and thus freed, from their
own guilt.
The full essay is "The Professor and the Madman."
