Oh, no worries, I like talking about interpretation. And sometimes I will equally sound foot-stomp-y... *g*
I guess an unskilled, often unarmed intellectual aristocrat going around provoking blood-lust in every drunk swordfighter he can find in a fit of suicidal depression is a bit mad, true.
It's hard to see how that is sane! And also, his actions reactions to things are so often "off" - I'm trying to think of a specific example and not sure. When he goes for Richard's throat, perhaps. When he doesn't feel the pain of broken glass in his arm. So... yeah. I do see him as mad. Not irretrievably and permanently so, I think he has more-normal (for whatever value of normal) periods, and the trial bit is one of those, but he's also very visibly holding himself together.
I think he would ignore any real responsibilities of the job
Mostly he does that - what he does do for e.g. the benefit of Riverside and others is largely, it seems to me, an outgrowth of wanting to manipulate certain people and thwart others, rather than being any sort of acceptance of responsibility. Why they would live apart - perhaps it is Richard who insists on that? He has his own pride and need for independence, after all. And they do eventually go off to Kyros together for the rest of Richard's life.