"A bit?"
"Well," conceded the analyst with a shrug to excuse his own inadequate
powers of description. Then he said, "Do not be surprised at going
crazy, as you put it, Mr. Gish--may I call you Phil? It is the rule
rather than the exception these days, though your admitting it is a
bit out of the ordinary. For a full century now Americans have been
living in one of those ages of collective madness and herd delusion,
comparable only to the Dutch tulip mania, the witchcraft dread, the
dancing madness, Trotskyism, and the Crusades. Until 1950 ours might
have been called the Automobile Mania, but now the imagination can
only grope for a name--I'm writing an unpopular book on the subject,
you see. Not that this current social madness is a deep secret or
anything to be startled at. What other results could have been expected
when American society began to overvalue on the one hand security,
censorship, an imagined world-saving idealism and self-sacrifice in
war, and on the other hand insatiable hunger for possessions, fiercely
competitive aggressiveness, sadistic male belligerence, contempt for
parents and the state, and a fantastically overstimulated sexuality?"
The analyst's voice rose stridently and his eyes popped, as if there
were a personal element in his indignation. But the next moment he was
his merry professional self.
"Now, Phil, let's examine how this sick society has sickened you. It
may surprise you but we shan't be using any such modern techniques as
electrosleep, deep brain photography or situational therapy complete
with a bottle, a blanket and a blonde love-robot. We shall simply do
what our great-grandfathers would have done--talk. Feel perfectly at
ease. This desk is designed so we can be together, yet need not look
at each other. Care to smoke? Good! Do! Now begin at the beginning.
Tell me the story of your life."
Phil swallowed. "Excuse me, Dr. Romadka," he said, "but I'd rather not
do that right now. I want to tell you about an experience, I mean,
hallucination, I just had that convinced me I'm crazy, and then I
want you to tell me about it. You know: interpret it or psych it or
something."