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Maurice O'Connor Drury

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Con Drury, probably photographed by Wittgenstein when he visited Dublin in 1936.

Maurice O'Connor Drury (3 July 1907 – 25 December 1976) was an Irish[1] psychiatrist, best known for his accounts of his conversations, and close friendship, with the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. [2]

Early life and education

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'Con' Drury (as he would be known to his friends) was born in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England of Irish parents. He grew up in Exeter, Devon, England, where his father, Henry D'Olier Drury, who had been a teacher in Marlborough College, retired.[3]

Drury was educated at Exeter Grammar School. He then studied philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge. His tutors included G. E. Moore, C. D. Broad and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Drury became Wittgenstein's friend for many years to come, until the latter's death in 1951.[3]

After graduation Drury entered the Cambridge theological college Westcott House, leaving after one year. He then enrolled in the medical school in Trinity College Dublin, graduating in 1939.[3]

Medical career

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Drury joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving in Egypt and taking part in the Normandy landings. After his demobilisation, Drury worked as a House Physician in a hospital in Taunton.[4] In 1947 he was appointed Resident Psychiatrist at St Patrick's Hospital Dublin.[3] From 1951 he also worked in a subsidiary nursing home, St Edmundbury, Lucan, Dublin. He lectured medical students on psychology in Trinity College and the Royal College of Surgeons. He is described as relating to his student audience as "quite an intellectual man, who was very much speaking and relating to an audience as an intellectual."[4] He was promoted to Senior Consultant Psychiatrist in 1969. In 1970 due to anginal pain he moved to a private residence in Dublin.[3]

Personal life

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He married the matron of St Patrick's Hospital, Eileen Herbert, in 1951.[3] One of his children, Luke Drury a physicist, was elected president of the Royal Irish Academy in 2011.[5] His second son Paul was one of Ireland's most prominent newspaper editors, editing The Star, Evening Herald, Irish Daily Mail, and Ireland on Sunday. He was also deputy editor of the Irish Independent. He died in 2015.[6]

Drury was a member of the Zoological Society of Ireland.[7]

Writings

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Drury was the author of one book, The Danger of Words (1973).[8] This was included in a collection of many of his writings edited by John Hayes and published in 2017.[9] His papers are on deposit in the library of Mary Immaculate College Limerick.[10] Ray Monk described the book as perhaps "the most truly Wittgensteinian work published by any of Wittgenstein's students.[11]

Philosophy

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Drury's book, The Danger of Words has been described by Ray Monk as "in its attitudes and concerns, more truly Wittgensteinian" than almost any other book published by one of Wittgenstein's students.[12]

Drury brought Wittgenstein's "critique of language" to bear on the practice of medicine, and particularly psychology that promised the same control over the mind that physics achieved with matter. This promise, pointed out Drury, was one where the delivery date was always being pushed into the future.[3]

Bibliography

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References

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  1. ^ "despite his English birth and education, his army record, as his request, gave his nationality as ‘Irish’." Hayes, J. "Con Drury: philosopher and psychiatrist." History of Psychiatry. 2017;28(4):p.393. doi:10.1177/0957154X17715413
  2. ^ Drury, M. O’C., Conversations with Wittgenstein, in R. Rhees (ed.), Recollections of Wittgenstein. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.97–171. Introduced (pp. 76–96) by Drury, M. O’C., Some Notes on Conversations with Wittgenstein.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Hayes, John (2005). "Drury, Maurice O'Connor (1907–76)". The Dictionary of Twentieth-Century British Philosophers. Thoemmes Continuum. doi:10.5040/9781350052437-0088. ISBN 9781350052437.
  4. ^ a b Hayes, John (1996). "Wittgenstein's 'Pupil': The Writings of Maurice O'Connor Drury". Minerva - An Internet Journal of Philosophy. Archived from the original on 25 September 2012. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  5. ^ "TCD Physicist Elected President of the Royal Irish Academy". Trinity News and Events. 18 March 2011. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  6. ^ "Paul Drury, a legend of the newspaper world". independent. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  7. ^ The Selected Writings of Maurice O’Connor Drury. Bloomsbury Publishing. 2017. p. 39.
  8. ^ Drury, M. O'C (Maurice O'Connor) (1973). The danger of words. Internet Archive. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul; New York, Humanities Press. ISBN 978-0-7100-7596-3.
  9. ^ Kelly, Brendan D. (September 2021). "The Selected Writings of Maurice O'Connor Drury On Wittgenstein, Philosophy, Religion and Psychiatry by Maurice O'Connor Drury, Edited by John Hayes (472 pp.; ISBN 9781474256360). Bloomsbury, London, 2017". Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine. 38 (3): 234–235. doi:10.1017/ipm.2018.3. ISSN 0790-9667.
  10. ^ "Drury Archive Gifted to Mary Immaculate College". 23 March 2018. Archived from the original on 23 March 2018. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  11. ^ Portraits of Wittgenstein: Abridged Edition. Bloomsbury Publishing. 2018. p. 329.
  12. ^ Monk, Ray (1991). Ludwig Wittgenstein : the duty of genius. London: Vintage. p. 264. ISBN 0099883708. OCLC 877368486. Maurice Drury, whose collection of essays on philosophical and psychological issues, The Danger of Words, though it has been almost completely ignored in the secondary literature, is, in its attitudes and concerns, more truly Wittgensteinian than almost any other secondary text.
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