I can’t get the pieces in this sentence to cohere. How is ‘um’ operating? If it’s the detached prefix from ‘bringen’ it should be at the end, and the sentence would read ‘…destroyed for her the understanding.’ But I’ve never seen anything follow a detached verb prefix. Is this possible?
It’s not a separable verb this time.
“jemanden um etwas bringen” means “to cut somebody out of something” or “to defraud somebody of something”.
Or in this case “um den Verstand bringen” means " to drive somebody out of their mind".
The “um” is a normal preposition, and the sentence would literally be “The accident brought her around her sanity”.
Other common combinations are (according to my dictionary):
jdn. um sein Recht bringen - to cheat sb. out of his right
jdn. um seinen Lohn bringen - to cheat sb. out of their wages
I found this example on the net:
Denn das Mercedes-Team entschied, den Leader an die Box zu holen – und brachte ihn so um den Sieg.
Because the Mercedes team decided to bring the leader into the pits - and thus deprived him of the victory.
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Thanks. “Around” was just not something I’ve ever heard used in this way. It’s always ‘out’ of one’s mind in English. But ‘around’ gives a vivid sense of a self actually being driven physically around something like her sanity, or right mind, which she might glance at nervously, but is alienated from. --Wow. Just realized we say “around the bend” for going bonkers!
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