Editing Paul Morphy (section)

===Mental illness===
Morphy showed signs of deteriorating mental health in his final years. By 1875, his mother, brother and a friend tried to admit him to a Catholic sanitarium, but Morphy was so well able to argue for his rights and sanity that they sent him away.{{sfnm|1a1=Lawson|1y=2010|1p=304|2a1=Hertan|2y=2024|2p=350}} Morphy had shown signs of a persecution complex; he sued his brother-in-law, for example, and tried to provoke a duel with a friend. Hertan notes that it is not easy to determine just when this behavior began, or what might have triggered it, but gives as an example some incidents described in a letter by [[Charles Johnson Woodbury|Charles J. Woodbury]] to [[The Hartford Times]] in 1873.{{sfn|Hertan|2024|pp=349-350}} By 1879, according to a letter to the ''Cincinnati Commercial'' from a Dr. L. P. Merideth, Morphy was talking to himself and responding to imaginary salutations.{{sfnm|1a1=Lawson|1y=2010|1pp=308-309,370|2a1=Hertan|2y=2024|2pp=353-354}}

[[Ernest Jones]] published an article of psychoanalytic discussion of Morphy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=Ernest |date=January 1931 |title=The Problem of Paul Morphy; A Contribution to the Psycho-Analysis of Chess |url=http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/Jones.html |url-status=live |journal=International Journal of Psycho-Analysis |volume=12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230311194658/http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/Jones.html |archive-date=March 11, 2023 |access-date=March 11, 2023}}</ref> [[Reuben Fine]] published a longer article in which Morphy was mentioned.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fine |first=Reuben |author-link=Reuben Fine |date=1956 |title=Psychoanalytic Observations on Chess and Chess Masters |journal=Psychoanalysis |volume=4 |pages=7–77 |number=3}}</ref> Both articles have been criticized for the use of unreliable historical sources.{{sfn|Lawson|2010|pp=313-319}}

Fine wrote that Morphy "arranged women's shoes into a semi-circle around his bed", and this has been widely copied and embellished upon.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Winter |first=Edward |author-link=Edward Winter (chess historian) |title=Fun |url=https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/fun.html |website=Chess Notes}}</ref> But it is a misquotation from a booklet written by Morphy's niece, Regina Morphy-Voitier. She wrote: <blockquote>Now we come to the room which Paul Morphy occupied, and which was separated from his mother's by a narrow hall. Morphy's room was always kept in perfect order, for he was very particular and neat, yet this room had a peculiar aspect and at once struck the visitor as such, for Morphy had a dozen or more pairs of shoes of all kinds which he insisted in keeping arranged in a semi-circle in the middle of the room, explaining with his sarcastic smile that in this way, he could at once lay his hands on the particular pair he desired to wear. In a huge porte-manteau he kept all his clothes which were at all times neatly pressed and creased.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morphy-Voitier |first=Regina |title=Life of Paul Morphy in the Vieux Carré of New-Orleans and Abroad |year=1926 |pages=38 |oclc=4938814}}</ref></blockquote>
Fine incorrectly claimed that the shoes described were ''women's'' shoes instead of Morphy's own. But in any case, Hertan dismisses the psychoanalytical studies:{{blockquote|While Freudian Psychoanalysis still has many adherents, no credible Psychotherapist today ascribes a Major Mental Illness to internal conflicts; the biochemical basis of Psychotic Disorders is too well understood.{{sfn|Hertan|2024|p=355}}}}