_The primary function of personality is self-preservation, but
personality itself is not a static but a dynamic thing. The
basic factor in its development, is integration: each new
situation calls forth a new adjustment which modifies or alters
the personality in the process. The proper aim of personality,
therefore, is not permanence and stability, but unification. The
inability of a personality to adjust to or integrate a new
situation, the resistance of the personality to unification, and
its efforts to preserve its integrity are known popularly as
insanity._
--Morgan Littlefield,
Notes on Psychology.
_"Hoskins!"_
Paresi grabbed the Captain's arm and spun him around roughly. "Captain
Anderson! Cut it!" Very softly, he said, "Leave him alone. He's doing
what he has to do."
Anderson stared over his shoulder at the little engineer. "Is he, now?
Damn it, he's still under orders!"
"Got something for him to do?" asked the doctor cooly.
Anderson looked around, at the controls, out at the sleeping mountains.
"I guess not. But I'd like to know he'd take an order when I have one."
"Leave him alone until you have an order. Hoskins is a very steady head,
skipper. But just now he's on the outside edge. Don't push."
The Captain put his hand over his eyes and fumbled his way to the
controls. He turned his back to the pilot's chair and leaned heavily
against it. "Okay," he said. "This thing is developing into a duel
between you and those ... those colleagues of yours out there. I guess
the least we ... I ... can do is not to fight you while you're fighting
them."
Paresi said, "You're choosing up sides the wrong way. They're fighting
us, all right. We're only fighting ourselves. I don't mean each other; I
mean each of us is fighting himself. We've got to stop doing that,
skipper."