第 70 节
作者:
暖暖 更新:2021-02-24 23:00 字数:9322
nd grows until it reaches the delusion of persecution。 L。 was a bright boy; always conceited and given to non…social acts。 Thus he never would play with the other boys unless he were given the leading role; and he could not bear to hear others praised or to praise them! Parenthetically the role that jealousy plays in the conduct of men and women needs exposition; and I recommend that some Ph。 D。 merit his degree by a thesis on this subject。 When he was a little older he got the notion that hats were bad for the hair; and being proud of his own thick black mop; he went without a hat for over a year; despite the tears and protestations of his family and the ridicule of his friends。 There is no one so ready to die for a cause; good or bad; as the paranoid。 He entered the medical school; and to this day there is none of his classmates who has forgotten him。 Proud; even haughty; with only one or two intimates; he studied hard and did very good work。 Now and then he astonished the class by taking direct issue with some professor; disputing a theory or a fact with the air of an authority and proposing some other idea; logically developed but foolishly based; as if his training were sufficient。 It is characteristic of all paranoid philosophy and schemes that they despise real experimentation; that they start with some postulate that has no basis in work done and go on with a minute hyper…logic that deceives the unsophisticated。 Though L。 was 〃bright;〃 there were better men in his class; and they received the honors。 L。 was deeply offended at this and claimed to his own friends that the professors were down on him; especially a certain professor of medicine; who; so L。 intimated; was afraid that L。's theories would displace his own and so was interested to keep him down。 This feeling was intensified when he came up for the examinations to a certain famous hospital and was turned down。 The real reason for this failure was his unpopularity with his fellow students; for they let it be known to the examiners that L。 would undoubtedly be hard to get along with; and it was part of the policy of the hospital to consider the personality of an applicant as well as his ability。 L。 obtained a hospital place in a small city and did very good work; and though his peculiarities were noticed they excited only a hidden current of amused criticism; while his abilities aroused a good deal of praise。 Stimulated by this; he started practice in the same city as a surgeon and quickly rose to the leading position。 His indefatigable industry; his absolute self… confidence and his skill gave him prestige almost at once。 His conceit rose to the highest degree; and his mannerisms commenced to become offensive to others。 He came into collision with the local medical society because he openly criticized the older men in practice as 〃ignoramuses; asses; charlatans; etc。;〃 and indeed was sued by one of them in the courts。 The suit was won by the plaintiff; the award was five thousand dollars and L。 entered an appeal。 From this on his career turned。 In order to contest the case; and because he began to believe that the courts and lawyers were in league against him; he studied law and was admitted to the bar。 He had meanwhile married a rich woman who was wholly taken in by his keen logical exposition of his 〃wrongs;〃 his imposing manner of speech and action; and perhaps she really fell in love with the able; aggressive and handsome man。 She financed his law school studies; for it was necessary for him to give up most of his practice meanwhile。 As soon as he could appear before the Bar he did so in his own behalf; for this case had now reached the proportions where it had spread out into half a dozen cases。 He refused to pay his lawyers; and they sued。 One of them dropped the statement that L。 was 〃crazy;〃 and he brought a suit against the lawyer。 Moreover; he began to believe; because of the adverse judgments; that the courts were against him; and he wrote article after article in the radical journals on the corruptness of the courts and entered a strenuous campaign to provide for the public election and recall of judges。 These activities brought him in close relations with a group of unbalanced people operating under the high…sounding name League of Freedom。 These people; led by a man; J。; eagerly welcomed L。; largely because his wife was still financing his ventures。 Here comes a curious fact; and one prominent in the history of man; for this group; led by two unbalanced men; actually engineered a real reform; for they brought about a codification of the laws of their State; a simple codification that made it possible to know what the laws on any matter really are。 This may be stated: the average balanced person is apt to weigh consequences to himself; but the paranoid does not; and so; when accident or circumstances'1' enlist him in a good cause; he is a fighter without fear and is enormously valuable。 '1' See Lombroso's 〃Man of Genius〃 for many such cases。
This success brought L。's paranoia to the pinnacle of unreason。 He attacked the courts boldly; openly and publicly accused the judges of corruption; said they were in conspiracy with the Bar and the medical societies to do him up; added to this list of his enemies the Irish and the Catholic Church; because the prosecuting attorney in one county and the judge in that court were Irish and Catholic; and then turned against his wife because she now began to doubt his sanity。 He brought suits in every superior court in the State; and at the time he was committed to an Insane Hospital he had forty trials on; had innumerable manuscripts of his contemplated reforms; in which were included the doing away with Insane Hospitals; the examination of all persons in the State for venereal disease and their cure by a new remedy of his own; the reform of the judiciary; etc。; etc。 He accused his wife of infidelity; felt that he was being followed by spies and police; claimed that dictagraphs were installed everywhere to spy on him and had a classical delusional state。 He was committed; but later he escaped from the hospital and is now at large。 The State officials are making no effort to find him; mainly because they are glad to get rid of him。 While the cases like L。 are not common; the 〃mildly〃 paranoid personality is common。 Everywhere one finds the man or woman whose abilities are not recognized; who is discriminated against; who finds an enemy in every one who does not kotow and who interprets as hostile every action not directly conciliating or friendly。 In every group of people there is one whose paranoid temperament must be reckoned with; who is distrustful; conceited and disruptive。 Often they are high…minded; perhaps devoted to an ideal; and if they convince others of their wrongs they increase the social disharmonies by creating new social wars; large or small according to their influence; intelligence and other circumstances。 The type of the trusting need not be here illustrated by any case history。 Dickens has given us an immortal figure in the genial; generous and impulsive Mr。 Pickwick; and Cervantes satirized knighthood by depicting the trusting; credulous Don Quixote。 We laugh at these figures; but we love them; they preserve for us the sweetness of childhood and hurt only themselves and their own。 Trust in one's fellows is not common; because the world is organized on egoism more than on fellowship。 Where fellowship becomes a code; as in the relations of men associated together for some great purpose; then a noble trust appears。 So I pass over those whose mood runs all one way the hopeful; the despondent; the pessimist and the optimistto other types。 We shall then consider the two great directions of interest; introspection and extrospection; and those whose lives are characterized by one or the other direction。 1。 The introspective personality is no more of a unit than any other type。 Intelligence; energy and a host of other matters play their part in the sum total of the character here as elsewhere。 H。 I。 is what might be called the intellectual introspective personality。 From the very earliest days he became interested in himself as a thinker。 〃How do my words mean anything?〃 he asked of his perplexed father at the investigative age of five。 〃Where do my thoughts go to when I do not think them?〃 was the problem he floored a learned uncle with a year later。 This type of curiosity is not uncommon in children; in fact; it is the conventionality and laziness of the elders that stops children in their study of the fundamentals。 H。 was not stopped; for the zeal of his interest was heightened as time went on。 He played with other boys but early found their conclusions and discussions primitive。 He became an ardent bookworm; reading incessantly or rather at such times when his parents permitted; for they were simple folk who were rather alarmed at their boy's interests and zeal。 No noticeable difference from other boys was noted aside from precocity in study; yet even at the age of ten life was running in two great currents for this boy。 The one current was the outer world with its ever varied happenings; the other was the inner world of thoughts and moods; deeply; fascinatingly interesting。 It seemed to H。 I。 that there were