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Mad scientist

The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as "mad, bad and dangerous to know"[1] or "insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly ambitious, taboo or hubristic nature of their experiments. As a motif in fiction, the mad scientist may be villainous (evil genius) or antagonistic, benign, or neutral; may be insane, eccentric, or clumsy; and often works with fictional technology or fails to recognise or value common human objections to attempting to play God. Some may have benevolent intentions, even if their actions are dangerous or questionable, which can make them accidental antagonists.

"Mad genius" redirects here. For the related subject, see Creativity and mental health.

"Dr. Zorka" (, 1939)

The Phantom Creeps

"Dr. Fu Manchu" (, Republic, 1940)

Drums of Fu Manchu

"Dr. Satan" (, 1940)

Mysterious Doctor Satan

"Dr. Vulcan" (, 1949)

King of the Rocket Men

"Atom Man/Lex Luthor" , 1950)

Atom Man vs. Superman

Absent-minded professor

Boffin

British scientists (meme)

Crank (person)

Creativity techniques

Creativity and mental illness

a similar trope, about a brilliant inventor, but of positive attitudes

Edisonade

Egghead

Faust

Fringe science

Girl Genius

List of mad scientists

Mad scientists of Stanislaw Lem

Allen, Glen Scott (2009). Master Mechanics and Wicked Wizards: Images of the American Scientist from Colonial Times to the Present. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.  978-1-55849-703-0.

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Garboden, Nick (2007). Mad Scientist or Angry Lab Tech: How to Spot Insanity. Portland: Doctored Papers.  1-56363-660-3.

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Haynes, Roslynn Doris (1994). From Faust to Strangelove: Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.  0-8018-4801-6.

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Junge, Torsten; Doerthe Ohlhoff (2004). Wahnsinnig genial: Der Mad Scientist Reader. Aschaffenburg: Alibri.  3-932710-79-7.

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Norton, Trevor (2010). Smoking Ears and Screaming Teeth. (A witty celebration of the great eccentrics...). Century.  978-1-84605-569-0.

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Schlesinger, Judith (2012). The Insanity Hoax: Exposing the Myth of the Mad Genius. Ardsley-on-Hudson, N.Y. Shrinktunes Media  978-0-98369-824-1.

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James T. Webb, Ph.D. (September 12, 2012). . The National Psychologist. Retrieved 28 May 2015.

"A Book Review of The Insanity Hoax: Exposing the Myth of the Mad Genius"

Schneider, Reto U. (2008). The Mad Science Book. 100 Amazing Experiments from the History of Science. London: Quercus.  978-1-84724-494-9.

ISBN

Tudor, Andrew (1989). Monsters and Mad Scientists: A Cultural History of the Horror Movie. Oxford: Blackwell.  0-631-15279-2.

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Weart, Spencer R. (1988). Nuclear Fear: A History of Images. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Levi, Pfaff J. (1956). Wahnsinnig genial: Der Mad Scientist Reader. Aschaffenburg: Alibri.  3-932710-79-7.

ISBN

Gary Hoppenstand, "Dinosaur Doctors and Jurassic Geniuses: The Changing Image of the Scientist in the Lost World Adventure"

The Scarecrow's Brain – images of the scientist in film, Christopher Frayling

The Mad Scientist Database with links and Looks