Free The Winston Affair by Howard Fast Page B

honest, they would admit to the same thing. The science of the mind is very young, very new, very uncertain of its conclusions. Even our terminology is awkward and unspecific. Winston is suffering from what we classify as dementia paranoides. One might think of this particular case as a formal or almost classical paranoides. Paranoia is a generic term for a whole group of mental disease, but Winston’s case is specific and unmistakable.”
    â€œAnd is this organic? Was Winston born with this?” Adams asked.
    Kaufman shrugged. “That’s something we can’t answer with certainty yet. My own opinion is no. My belief is that what we call the ‘paranoid personality’ comes into being in very early childhood, as a result of the child’s environment. Of course, such a thing is not a psychosis—or, insanity, as you might say. It’s a neurotic personality pattern which establishes the groundwork for later development. Nor does it by any means always lead to a psychotic, state or insanity, with consequent personality disintegration. The paranoid personality is all too common in every walk of life, and the grief and heartache it brings to mankind is almost beyond calculation. But by far the greatest number of such personalities live out their entire lives without ever being committed to an institution.”
    Adams was intrigued, wholly captivated. “Could you describe such a personality to me?” he asked. “I mean in general terms.”
    Kaufman smiled and leaned back in his chair. “Only if you accept what I say without argument and accept what you don’t understand without explanation.”
    â€œI’ll try, sir.”
    â€œAll right. We’ll begin with a hypothetical norm. I specify hypothetical because we have no real notion of the normal man as an abstraction. We can only establish a norm out of our own torn and distorted world, and in a general sense we hold that a man who can live in this world, face its realities and cope with them sensibly is a normal human being. That’s a loose and amorphous definition, but it’s the best we have at the moment. Now, within this situation, a man defends himself against real dangers because he is afraid of real dangers. If he is to survive, he must take care of himself. Do you follow me?”
    Adams nodded. “So far—yes. No arguments.”
    â€œNow—on the question of the neurotic, a hell of a damn lot has been written. But the simplest approach is to think of the neurotic as a person who compulsively defends himself against unreal dangers—that is, against dangers that do not exist. The mechanism of defense is a natural mechanism; it is the perception of danger that has gone awry. The most frequent, timeworn example is that of the old maid who looks under the bed for a man each night before going to sleep. The old saw is that she hopes to find a man there, but actually she doesn’t. She has a great fear of men—one of the reasons why she is a spinster. And since this fear is based on no reality—she would live a more fruitful life with a man than without one—it is part of a neurotic pattern. Her looking under the bed is compulsive. She knows by reason and experience that she won’t find a man there, but she cannot resist the force of her unreal fear.
    â€œOf course this is a vulgar simplification of a profound and complex pattern of mental organization.”
    â€œBut she isn’t insane?” Adams asked.
    â€œBy no means. She is still in touch with reality. All neurotics are. She knows there is no one under the bed. She recalls experiences. And she is still able to function, in spite of her fears. She simply goes through a compulsive neurotic pattern, and is even able to be somewhat amused at her own nonsensical behavior. But if she should become hysterical upon entering the room, if she should be unable to look under the bed because she knows the man is