JOHNSON'S `PEOPLE IN QUANDARIES'

Its Significance for Psychopatholog y

RUSSELL MEYERS*

HE SUBJECT matter of general se- ing role of the perceiver and of the in-
T mantics, as conceived and expounded
by Alfred Korzybski, constitutes an in-
hibitory and facilitative processes resident
within his language habits.
tegral and inseparable component of That the science of psychology stands
virtually every area of human endeavor . in a particularly advantageous position
Since the publication of Science and to help the general semanticist reach a
Sanity in 1933, there has been a growing broader understanding of his immediate
awareness-perceptible for the most part objects of study has been implicitly and
among academicians but within very re- explicitly recognized in several recently
cent years to an increasing degree among published books of which those by Arnold
independent thinkers engaged in other (2), Bloomfield (3), Chase (5), Haya-
pursuits-that the arts, natural sciences kawa (9), Lee (13), Malinowski (14),
and humanities are so inevitably pervaded and Walpole (17), are among the more
by matters germane to semantics that familiar . This circumstance arises from
no inquiry can be properly projected, no the fact that psychologic science formally
phenomenon adequately examined, no encompasses within its spheres of inquiry
understanding competently reached, and the processes of perceptual response and
no course of action fittingly recommended its aberrations the modes by which habits
which fails to take account of the abstract- in general are acquired, retained, modi-
fied and summoned for functional ex-
*Russell Meyers, M .D ., is Associate Pro- pression ; and the role of language as a
fessor of Surgery, State University of Iowa
Medical School, and chairman of the Division signalizing and symbolizing determinant
of Neuro-Surgery, University Hospitals. As of emotional and perceptual responses . It
Lieutenant-Colonel in the Medical Corps, he is perhaps no mere accident that Ogden
served as chief of the Neurosurgical Centers at and Richards' (16) The Meaning o f
Mayo General Hospital, Galesburg, Ill ., and Meaning, which provided so vigorous an
178th General Hospital, Rheims, France . Dip-
lomate of the American Board of Psychiatry impulse toward the development of ap-
and Neurology and of the American Board of plied semantics, was written by a psy-
Neurological Surgery, Dr . Meyers is also Fel- chologist working in collaboration with a
low of the American College of Surgeons . His rhetorician.
published works include scientific papers for Writers whose training and principal
Illinois Medical journal, journal of Neuro- activities have been in special disciplines
pathology and Experimental Neurology, Journal
of Neurophysiology, Journal of Abnormal and (e .g., mathematics, philosophy, English,
Social Psychology, Bulletin of the American public speaking, history, political science,
College of Surgeons, etc . economics, industrial management, social
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 ETC. : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS

anthropology, etc.) and who have per- tean psychologic ills of subclinical mag-
ceived the significance of general se- nitude to which the 'normal' individual
mantics for their own specialties as well in our culture falls heir, are in large
as for human relations and endeavors at measure capable of interpretation in se-
large have been under the necessity of mantic terms . His corollary thesis is that
reaching into the several fields of psy- the achievement of effective prophylactic
chology and psychiatry for the purpose of and therapeutic measures against these
apprehending functional principles that aberrations involves a wholesale revision
might be employed for the elucidation of faulty semantic habits, not only in con-
and authentication of their presentations . sideration of the individual sufferer, un-
By and large, it must be said, they have wittingly confounded by the self-contra-
done well in these excursions, exhibiting dictions inhering within our language
a nicety of judgment in the selection of structure, but with far greater compulsion
pertinent experimental and clinical data in consideration of the social order in
and an adept discernment in the recog- which the responsible habit patterns were
nition of applicable psychologic concepts. originally engendered and through which
It is hardly to be expected however that, agency they are propagated from genera-
for the broader purposes of general se- tion to generation . In a word, the 'specific'
mantics, the fullest potential of present- recommended for the prevention and
day developments in the several fields of treatment of these personality ills is scien-
psychology can be realized by such means . tific method-to be employed not merely
As the authors themselves would un- in an occasional and circumscribed fash-
doubtedly acknowledge, 'reading up' on ion but habitually, generally and peren-
a subject as comprehensive and intensive nially in the course of human relations
as psychology is one thing ; actively work- and endeavors. In this, Dr . Johnson stands
ing in the field, measuring one's hy- in accord with the view earnestly advo-
potheses and those of one's colleagues cated by Alfred Korzybski (12) .
against daily extensional experience, be- Upon first encounter there appears to
ing impelled continually toward improved be little of a startling character in these
techniques for acquiring data and toward interpretations or in the recommendations
more substantial interpretations of already that follow from them . As the author pro-
acquired data-these constitute quite an- ceeds with the elaboration of his theme,
other thing . There has existed, in view however, it becomes increasingly appar-
of such considerations, strong need for a ent that the broad areas of education, re-
systematic presentation of the physiologic ligion and politico-economic philosophy,
and psychologic substrates of general se- as constituted in the several varieties of
mantics as these appear to the trained psy- present-day nationalism (11), lie directly
chologist. This need has been eminently exposed to withering emanations the
met in Wendell Johnson's recent book, sources of which are scientific method
People in Quandaries (10) . and general semantics.
For the illumination of his ideas, Dr .
II
Johnson marshals significant materials
Dr . Johnson's main thesis is the demon- from various fields of psychology-gen-
stration of a view that the etiology of the eral, comparative, child, experimental,
so-called functional psychiatric disorders, educational, vocational, physiologic, social
as well as of the more numerous and pro- and abnormal . He evaluates these with
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 JOHNSON'S 'PEOPLE IN QUANDARIES'

particular reference to their semantic im- tion, the veridical character of which
plications and integrates them in such varies appreciably with the background of
fashion as to provide convincing sub- other truths in which it is set. Truth of
stantiation for his views . He skilfully cir- this sort is regarded as an abstraction,
cumvents the verbal magic and demonol- determined in large measure and of
ogy of certain current schools of psy- necessity limited by the receptor-central
chopathology and leads the reader toward adjustor-effector equipment of the per-
a fresh interpretation of the psycho- ceiving organism . It is thus synonymous
sociologic dynamics of personality malad- with truth-for-us and as such is likely to
justment, arriving in due course at well- prove tentative at best . Like its close rela-
defined and palpable semantic formula- tives, theory and hypothesis, it serves
tions, wholly consistent with established mainly as a point of departure for newer
physiologic and psychologic principles . inquiries into the unfathomed phenomena
Incidental to the accomplishment of of the universe.
this large task, Dr . Johnson succeeds in
exhibiting the holistic and ever-changing III
processes involved in personality develop- The early chapters of the book, com-
ment, both normal and aberrant. That prising Parts I and II, set forth the prob-
these processes, whatever their com- lems of psychologic disorder with which
plexity, are nevertheless potentially sus- the author proposes to engage and demon-
ceptible of analysis and synthesis by tech- strate how inevitably these stem from the
niques in all essential respects comparable heterogeneous and often irreconcilable be-
to those successfully employed in other havioral orientations imposed upon the
scientific fields is confirmed by frequent growing child by his family and its sur-
reference to historical and current de- rogate, the social order . The manner, in
velopments in physics, astronomy, chem- which coexisting magical, religious, pre-
istry, biology and psychology . scientific and scientific modes of thinking-
The lay reader becomes painlessly in- and-doing operate to produce irresolvable
doctrinated in scientific method as a quandaries for both the individual and
modus operandi for acquiring data and his social group is impressively illustrated
for interpreting the phenomena of daily by numerous examples drawn from daily
experience. Measured in terms of pre- experience and by reference to pertinent
dictability and manipulability, the super- ethnologic data. That rigid, ill-gotten
iority of scientific method over other language habits of dubious origin but un-
techniques (e .g., intuition, inspiration, di- mistakable prestige play a crucial role in
vine revelation, formal logic as exempli- such psycho-sociologic operations and that
fied in aristotelian procedure, etc.) for they have the effect of rearing a stone wall
the attainment of useful knowledge is against which the unwitting sufferer
pointed up . bruises his head with monotonous regu-
The prevalent notion of truth as a static, larity is well epitomized in the author's
absolute, eternal and universal affair, IFD disease-an intensional sequence in
elusive but nevertheless capable of cap- which nebulously defined and (for the
ture in its pristine form, is unequivocally individual concerned) excessively high
rejected . In its place is urged a modern and unrealizable ideals meet again and
scientific concept which views it as a again with frustration in the world of
dynamic, continuously-evolving formula- process-reality . The preconditions of de-
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moralization thus become established and invoke them that they are, first and last,
these in their turn lead to the familiar figments of the imagination ; and second
symptoms and signs of psychologic dis- that, being strictly ex post facto explana-
order . 'The maladjusted person,' asserts tions, they serve no purpose comparable to
Dr . Johnson, 'has a corispicuous lack of that toward which scientific accounts reso-
ability to ask questions in such a way as lutely strive, namely, predictability . In Dr.
to obtain answers that would be relax- Johnson's words, 'predictability is not
ing or satisfying or adjustive the only the pole-star of the scientist
terminology of the question determines it is also the bedrock of sanity, of ade-
the terminology of the answer quate, everyday social and personal ad-
unschooled in the techniques of inquiry justment .'
we tend to founder in a fog of obfusca-
tion and error, individually and socially .' IV
No small measure of responsibility for The accusation is not infrequently
the prevalence of this lamentable circum- heard that the scientist, in utilizing sub-
stance is imputed by the writer to the microscopic 'constructs' (e .g., electrons,
Voice of the Old Man-the symbol of atoms, molecules, genes, etc .), is guilty
self-appointed, rigid orthodoxy, arbitrary of precisely the sort of exercise that he
righteousness and reactionary tendencies rejects as invalid when practiced by the
personified in the authoritarians of home, layman in regard to metascientific
church, state and society . Without evan- noumena. Such constructs, it is asserted,
gelical zeal, rancor or reproach, rather are in every instance inferentially-reached
with the composure of a zoologist demon- figments of the imagination and for this
strating the paralyzing organ of the elec- reason no more creditable and in many
tric eel, the author reveals the tragic falli- ways less compelling of belief than the
bility of the Old Man and his shallow spiritual and supernatural concepts long
pretentiousness . A second agency to which revered by mankind . Responding to this
a large measure of responsibility is as- charge, Dr. Johnson points out that the
signed is the deep-rooted habit of pre- scientific person-to the extent that he
scientific thinking that pervades our cul- behaves as such-is highly conscious of
ture . There is, for example, an ordinarily the fact that his constructs are the product
unidentified but none the less ubiquitous of his own imagination and that they are
proneness on the part of Indo-Europeans projected into reality by himself . He de-
to conjure up 'plogglies' of one sort or fines his electrons, etc ., very deliberately
another as a convenient means of account- as to size, shape, weight, composition,
ing for the puzzling phenomena of their speed of movement, etc ., assigning to
perplexing world . Plogglies, according to them the characteristics they should have
Dr . Johnson, are of two general sorts, big i f they are to account for observed events.
and little . The former includes gods, Above all-and this is a crucial matter-
demons, devils, luck, fate, nature and he does not hesitate, whenever observed
various similar 'verbal monsters' ; the lat- events prove incapable of explanation in
ter includes fairies, brownies, elves, grem- terms of electrons, to alter his definition
lins and the like . With regard to plog- or, if necessity dictates, to abandon the
glies, big or little, two important obser- concept altogether. There is for him noth-
vations appear to hold : first, there is little ing sacred or inscrutable about that which
or no awareness on the part of those who was designed in the first place for his own
1 74
 JOHNSON'S 'PEOPLE IN QUANDARIES'

convenience . The measure of validity of whose capacity for observation exhibits

his concepts consists wholly in the ac- decided limitations . It follows that a fact
curacy of the predictions they make pos- must be incomplete-always-and that it
sible . amounts to an abstraction o f something
In contrast to this orientation, all that concerning the full-blown character of
the prescientific person understands of which the perceiver can but conjecture .
prediction is that the plogglies will be Because of the uncertainties that attach
angry with him unless he does what he to introspective methods in the effort to
is taught to believe they require him to distinguish between fact and fancy, a
do . Whatever may happen, whatever has 'fact' cannot properly be said to be estab-
happened is, for him, an expression of lished as such unless it has been con-
the plogglies' 'will .' He not only does not firmed by at least one person other than
feel free to revise his plogglies, he does the original reporter. Indeed, its useful-
not for a moment imagine that such could ness at any particular time in the bio-
be undertaken . social evolution of man depends to a con-
The overall effect brought to bear by siderable degree upon the extent to which
these disparate orientations is that, act- others agree with the perceiver concern-
ually or potentially, the scientific person ing it .
controls his electrons, etc ., whereas the From this point, Dr . Johnson develops
prescientist is controlled by his plogglies . in systematic and progressive fashion the
Those who fondly imagine that there is, significant semantic notions relative to ab-
after all, no 'real' conflict between the straction and levels o f abstraction . He ex-
scientific modus operandi and the pre- amines first the sort of abstraction that
scientific would do well to give sober obtains on the non-verbal, neural, macro-
contemplation to the table drawn up at scopic level and from here strikes out
the end of Chapter IV in which are through the non-verbal, extra-neural mic-
itemized eight diff erentia in respect of roscopic levels to reach the submicroscopic
which critical distinctions between them inferential levels of scientific constructs .
exist . He then returns to the starting point and
strikes out anew, passing through the
V
first-order descriptive levels of verbal ab-
In Part III, Dr . Johnson proceeds to a straction and reaching in due course the
detailed examination of general semantics hinterlands of high-order inferential ab-
and the contributions it proffers to epi- straction-the 'et ceteras .' He then indi-
stemology in general and to the relations cates the necessity of establishing a well-
between language and reality and symbol worn route from the latter back to the
and fact in particular . Before entering submicroscopic, inferential levels and of
upon this inquiry, he finds it expedient to continuously operating around this cir-
bring the reader a useful answer to the cuit . The desirability of achieving a close
fundamental question, `What is a fact?' coordination between verbal and non-
He observes that under any circumstance a verbal levels of abstraction while yet keep-
fact is an observation and that as such it is ing them clearly distinguished from one
an act o f an individual, a personal affair another is emphasized . Of such, asserts
consisting in large measure of complicated the author, is the language structure of
neural, muscular and glandular events sanity. Contrarily, when (as is all too
taking place in an ever-changing organism frequently the case in our culture) the
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circuit becomes limited in the sense of logically sound procedures it can be, then
being confined within high order levels the maladjustments themselves will be de-
of verbal abstraction, shock, confusion, stroyed . In the main, the machinery for
disappointment, irresolvable tensions and accomplishing this consists in the thor-
conflicts are very likely to supervene . Of ough-going utilization of scientific method
such is the language of maladjustment . in our language habits . By so doing, con-
For the graphic illustration of these tends Dr. Johnson, we would stand to
concepts, the author employs pedagogic gain a fifth freedom-that from confusion
devices in the form of graded diagrams, and demoralizing frustration . To accom-
similar to but-for the present writer- plish this substitution of prescientific by
more readily comprehensible than the scientific language habits, it is first neces-
'structural differentials' of Korzybski . sary to recognize that language is but a
technique in the service of head, heart
VI and heels and that as such it is an alter-
In Part IV, Dr. Johnson reaches a de- able thing. The next step (one which, it
tailed inquiry into the semantic etiology may be anticipated, is beset with serious
of psychologic disorders . Having already encumbrances of an untoward prejudicial
cast a useful general scheme of the dy- character) consists in effecting a funda-
namics of maladjustment and having mental reform in education-teaching
furnished the reader with a language for our children not how to give old answers
talking about language, he demonstrates but how to formulate new, meaningful,
that the language habits of psychotic, well circumscribed and answerable ques-
psychoneurotic and other aberrant per- tions, in full awareness of the ever-
sonalities are 'peculiarly significant' in present processes of abstraction .
that they are essentially aristotelian and That reform in education along these
closely akin to magical, religious and pre- lines, innocent though it may appear on
scientific verbal habits . Their predominant first encounter, must inevitably lead to a
features include (1) an inordinate re- far-reaching modification of traditional
spect for words and faith in their fancied ethics, esthetics, economics, law and gov-
power ; (2) vagueness and often aimless ernment is very obvious . The author
volubility ; (3) unconscious identification anticipates these consequences of the ap-
and projection ; (4) elementalism ; (5) plication of scientific method to education
two-valued orientations ; (6) rigidity of in his discussion of 'nonsense questions'
content, form and evaluation ; (7) the and 'the structure of confusion .' He ap-
striving for 'absolutes,' e .g., eternal truths, pears courageous enough, much to his
unit-factor explanations, the genuine ethi- credit, to let the chips fall where they may .
cal code, etc. ; and (8) the concealing of In Chapter XIII, the author describes
facts and motives . the prominent clinical features of the
That such a terminology o f maladjust- more familiar functional disorders en-
ment exists in our Indo-European lan- countered in psychiatric practice - the
guage structure is, as the author points schizophrenic, cyclothymic, paranoic and
out, both impropitious and regrettable . involutional psychoses ; the hysterical,
He sees some reason to be sanguine about neurasthenic and psychasthenic neuroses ;
the future, however, on the ground that 'constitutional' psychopathy, anxiety syn-
if the terminology of maladjustment can dromes, etc . By examining psychologic
be destroyed, as by the use of psycho- signs and symptoms as they appear thus
176
 JOHNSON'S 'PEOPLE IN QUANDARIES'

in strong relief, he prepares the lay reader drawing up a competent assessment of

for a facile recognition of the qualitatively assets and liabilities in each case are
similar but quantitatively less obvious proffered . In addition, careful considera-
aberrant behaviour tendencies observable tion is given to the practical issues of
among the chronically unhappy and planning and executing therapeutic pro-
mildly maladjusted individuals of the grams for both the individual and groups .
'normal' population . Attention is especially called to those
While granting fully the importance of 'diagnosogenic' and iatrogenic factors
familiarity with clinical entities as an aid that so frequently contribute to, intensify
in differential diagnosis, Dr . Johnson ex- and otherwise help to maintain psychiatric
presses much less concern with the mere inhabilitation . Dr. Johnson expresses the
descriptive aspects of psychiatric symp- opinion that stuttering takes its origin
tom-complexes than with the formulation under just such circumstances and in
of a substantial interpretation of their marshalling evidence in support of this
dynamic evolution in terms of general theory, he discloses the very significant
semantics . On his view, the torture from finding that among Bannock and Shoshone
which the maladjusted suffer is that of Indians stuttering is not only unknown
striving interminably for answers that but there is no word for it . This fact is
never come. 'Insofar as we get answers,' coupled with an equally important dis-
he avers, 'we tend to be happy, or at least closure, namely, that among these Indians
relieved .' Contrarily, nothing is more de- whose folkways have been but little al-
moralizing than a prolonged and futile tered by the Whites, there exist no
search for ardently sought answers . The parental anxieties over the acquisition of
psychologically disordered person char- 'normal,' fluent speech by each growing
acteristically formulates the questions with member of the tribe, no high standards
which he is occupied in elementalistic, ab- of verbal expression toward which each
solutistic and polarized terms . In so do- child is urged. In contrast, as extensive
ing, he virtually guarantees their un- researches conducted by the author and
answerability, at least for adaptive ends . his collaborators during the past decade
Such answers as he does obtain are bound have indicated, much disquieting solici-
to be fashioned out of the same terms of tude is manifested by parents, teachers,
which the questions themselves are com- etc. in our own culture upon the casual
prised . Accordingly, they lead only to appearance of speech faults in the young
action that is confusing, inefficient, dis- -faults which, it is emphasized, are
appointing and maladjustive . abundantly demonstrable in the every-
day speech of normal individuals . In-
VII ordinate insistence upon smoothness of
In the final section (Part V) of the performance is often made, as an incident
book, the author demonstrates the utility to which the parent's anxieties are com-
of general semantic principles as applied municated to the child . The latter is then
to common adjustment problems and rendered emotionally tense. His muscula-
to a particular clinical entity, namely, ture becomes hypertonic and his speech
stuttering . Many valuable suggestions in soon exhibits cluttering, repetitiveness
the technique of conducting interviews and undue pauses . A psychologic circus
and examinations, of formulating a notion vitiosus is thus induced and as it con-
of the pathogenesis of the disorder and of tinues in operation the child becomes al-
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 ETC . : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS

together convinced of his incapacity for ence in the succeeding paragraph (7c)
fluent speech . In time, he begins to adopt to the 'indubitable fact' that repressed
behavioral patterns motivated by the materials, couched in the id, 'remain un-
necessity of reducing his embarrassment altered by the passage of time.' Nor will
in social situations to the smallest pos- he be subjected, in anticipation of criti-
sible degree . The groundwork for an un- cisms he may wish to direct against the
happy existence is thus laid down . system, to a gratuitous reproof from the
Throughout the entire discussion on Voice of the Old Man to the effect that
stuttering, the reader is kept aware of the no one has a right to a say in psycho-
circumstance that the semantic principles analysis unless he has been through cer-
summoned are capable of being employed tain experiences which he can only have
to advantage for the comprehension and by being analyzed himself' (7d) . He will
management of a variety of personality not encounter semantically nebulous terms,
maladjustments. Regarding the interpreta- such as 'instincts for self-preservation and
tion of etiology, the author adopts a labile for the preservation of the species,'
position, capable of accomodating mul- 'libido,' 'anal eroticism,' 'Oedipus com-
tiple factors in respect of the individual plex,' 'will,' 'organ inferiority,' 'mascu-
patient's drives, motivations and mechan- line protest,' 'collective unconsciousness'
isms of behavior . A priori stereotypes of and others which enjoy in academic psy-
the freudian, adlerian and jungian types, chological science a dubious status at best,
in conformity with which each sign and and be required to regard these words-
symptom must ultimately be understood without-referents as the very bed-rock of
and consonant with which the case must his understanding of the normal and
be treated, are conspicuous by their ab- abnormal .
sence. The student is not obliged to di-
VIII
vide the 'mental apparatus' of the indi-
vidual into 'the three realms,' super-ego, The etiologic formulations offered in
ego and id (7), concerning which scien- People in Quandaries possess two prom-
tifically useful descriptions and definitions inent virtues that merit the notice of psy-
are non-existent . He will not find himself chopathologists : first, they are clearly
groping, as Freud was still doing after stated, directly comprehensible and con-
40 years of psychoanalytic inquiry, for an sistent with the principles basic to psy-
account of the id, 'the obscure, inacces- chology and related sciences ; and second,
sible part of our personality (that) they point the way to tangible programs
can only be described as being all that the for treating the psychologically malad-
ego is not,' of which the founder of justed individual and for improving the
psychoanalysis himself said in 1933, 'You social folkways and mores that are pre-
must not expect me to tell you much that sumed to subtend his maladjustments .
is new about the id, except its name' (7a) . These points may be illustrated by con-
The advanced student of psychology trasting the psychodynamics of 'anxiety'
will not be obliged, in his endeavors to as conceived by several current schools of
arrive at a defensible theory of person- psychopathology with the semantic view .
ality, to entertain self-contradictions of The Freudian Account (4) : In some
the sort that inhere within an acknowledg- cases of anxiety neurosis no etiology can
ment in one paragraph (7b) that virtually be readily found, but in such cases one
nothing is known of the id and a refer- can usually find a marked hereditary
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 JOHNSON'S 'PEOPLE IN QUANDARIES'

taint. Whenever the anxiety neurosis is experiences which serve the purpose of
acquired one can always find that the bringing about security, which strength-
etiologically effective factors are based on ens their affective state while they de-
a series of injuries and influences from preciate all others, especially those of an
the sexual life . Regardless of disposition, antithetical nature . In our physiognomonic
anxiety neurosis appears in women under of the soul we understand that there are
the following forms : (a) virginal fear or obvious and deep-seated wants which seek
anxiety in adults evoked at first encounter to support and maximate the ego-con-
with the sexual problem, through seeing, sciousness as a proof of manliness, as if
hearing or reading of sex ; (b) fear in the there were a constant fear of becoming
newly married young woman who re- 'de-classed,' of the revelation of a fem-
mains anesthetic during the first coitus ; inine role. The masculine protest o f these
(c) fear in women whose husbands suffer patients, insecure to the core, forces them
from ejaculatio precox or from diminished to this arrangement whose boundaries pass
potency ; (d) fear in those whose hus- over into those of bashfulness, awkward-
bands practice coitus interruptus or reser- ness, exaggerated modesty and anxiety .
vatus ; (3) anxiety in widows and in- The Jungian Account (6) : Our means
tentional abstainers ; and (f) anxiety in of adapting to the world consist in four
the climacterium during the last marked functions, paired as follows : thinking, or
enhancement of the sexual impulse. The pure intellect and its opposite, emotion,
determinants of anxiety neurosis in the or feeling ; intuition, and its opposite,
male are : (a) intentional abstinence ; (b) sensation . Owing to natural inherited dis-
frustrated excitement during the engage- position and to environment, every indi-
ment period or under conditions when vidual adapts himself to reality most
men fear the consequences of sexual re easily and most successfully by means of
lations and gratify themselves by handling one function called the superior function ;
and looking at the woman ; (c) coitus and always one lags behind, relatively un-
interruptus ; (d) senility, with increased developed and partially unconscious-the
libido and diminution of potency ; (e) inferior function. This brings us face to
abstinence from masturbation in neu- face with four very distinctly marked
rasthenics ; (f) considerable overwork types of persons . Each of these function-
and/or exhaustive exertion . The facts types will come under a further category,
thus enumerated go to show that in anxi- namely, that of the extraverted or intro-
ety neurosis we deal with an accumulation verted type . The libido, or psychic energy,
of sexual excitement and that the anxiety or interest, of the extravert flows out-
is not of psychic but of somatic origin. wards towards the object ; objective facts
Anxiety states are due to somatic sexual or external happenings are the all-im-
injuries. portant factors of life for him . The libido
The Adlerian Account (1) : One will of the introvert is fundamentally sub-
always discover that significant scheme of jective, rather than objective . The terms
the antithetical mode of apperception, extravert and introvert refer only to the
'masculine-feminine,' 'above-beneath' as individual's conscious attitude. The un-
existing originally in everybody, but espe- conscious of the extravert, however, is
cially marked in the neurotic . Neurotic introverted and that of the introvert extra-
anxiety develops in patients who avail verted . The unconscious tendencies norm-
themselves only of those impressions and ally act as compensatory or balancing
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agents to the conscious differentiated func- cope in any way with tasks which are
tion . Mental disturbances are caused by commensurate to its real nature . The basic
the over-development of the superior phenomenon of anxiety is, then, the oc-
function to the detriment of the others, currence of disordered stimulus evalua-
which, deprived of their full unconscious tion as it is conditional through the con-
value, become more and more uncon- flict of the organism with a certain en-
scious as libido is taken from them to add vironment which is not adequate for it .
to the already over-weighted superior Not being able to react adequately-that
function. Libido is always dynamic ; it is the shock to the total organism ; and
must create or destroy . What results is a anxiety follows if the incapacity to per-
conflict-the effect produced when a per- form means some threat to the individ-
son finds himself up against a problem ual's existence .
which cannot be solved by the superior The Psychobiologic Account (15) :
function and which the inferior function Fear as an emotional state has a clear
is inadequate to deal with (e.g ., a feel- object externally placed ; anxiety results
ing-type might find himself confronted from inner forces-instinctual cravings,
by a sudden financial crisis which only fancies, memories, etc.-poorly recog-
carefully directed thinking could bring to nized . In general, anxiety states occur in
a successful issue) . Neurosis is neither response to (1) unusual strain and re-
more nor less than inferior adaptation sponsibility, beyond that which is cus-
and when this occurs in an introvert, he tomarily borne ; ( 2) frustrations of all
becomes a prey to fear and other emotions sorts ; and (3) the habit o f crossing
within, the effects o f which are known bridges before coming to them .
to him only as anxiety, depression, ex- W. Johnson's Account (10) : It is the
treme sensitiveness and fears . The out- evaluative fears that are most prominent
come is exhaustion, both mental and in the general run of people. For the most
physical . part, these center around anxieties con-
K . Goldstein's Gestalt Account (8) cerning self-evaluation, social status and
Total behavior can be divided into two economic security . Self-respect, a good
basic classes-to one of which belong reputation and a sufficiency of the world's
the normal, effectual and ordered, to the goods would be placed high in the scale
other, the deficient, disordered or 'catas- of values of most people . Failure to
trophic' performances . The catastrophic achieve or to maintain these values places
reactions are embedded in physical and the ordinary individual under a well-nigh
mental shock . In these situations, the in- intolerable strain . This is especially true
dividual feels himself unfree, buffeted in our American culture, with its highly
and vacillating. He is in that condition competitive aspects and the premium it
we usually call anxiety . The patients can- places on personal achievement, popular-
not say what they are afraid of ; they can- ity and wealth . Because these goals are
not establish a relation with an object, so indefinitely defined for most individ-
hence their anxiety has no corresponding uals and yet are so desperately cherished,
content . It is just this condition which is the pursuit o f them generates a degree o f
so disconcerting for them . They experi- ap prehensiveness that leads often to states
ence the dissolution of the existence of o f frustration, worry and loss o f self-
personality . Anxiety appears when it has assurance. The patient so affected shows,
become impossible for an organism to as a rule, not a wild, agitated fear, but a
1 80
 JOHNSON'S 'PEOPLE IN QUANDARIES'

steady, pervasive anxiety from which he where the latter are disparate, the modes
finds it difficult to relax-a tendency to of treatment are similarly disparate . The
approach with a mild but unsettling fear approach to psychotherapy offered in Peo-
each new person, each new situation, each ple in Quandaries amounts to a process of
new day . Once he has developed the informal reeducation - intellectual and
tendency, he finds a seemingly endless emotional . The techniques employed in
variety of things of which to be afraid . the treatment of a given patient are de-
And when at last he comes to be afraid termined by a careful survey of his per-
because he knows he is afraid, he has sonality assets and liabilities and by those
moved self-reflexively into a stage of of his environment . They are in all cases
maladjustment that lies very near the un- guided by and altered in accord with de-
lovely domains of psychopathology. velopments as these emerge in the course
of treatment . This much is recognizable
in psychobiologic and orthopsychiatric
IX
procedures at large . That which consti-
As elsewhere in medicine and allied tutes a novel approach is the direction
pursuits, the therapeutic approach adopted given by the systematic utilization , of
and the program of prophylaxis formu- scientific method and semantic principles.
lated in respect of a given disorder This, as far as the present writer is aware,
'rationally' follow (as each author likes is unique and makes what Dr . Johnson
to believe) from his concepts of its speaks of (in another connection) as a
etiology, pathology and pathogenesis . And 'difference that makes a difference .'

REFERENCES

1 . Adler, A . : The Neurotic Constitution, Book Co ., N . Y., pp. 290-303, 1939 .

Dodd, Mead & Co ., N . Y ., pp . 148-151, 9 . Hayakawa, S . I . : Language in Action,
374 ff, 1926. Harcourt, Brace, N . Y., 1943.
2 . Arnold, T . W . : The Symbols of Govern- 10 . Johnson, W . : People in Quandaries,
ment, Yale Univ . Press, New Haven, Harper and Bros ., N. Y ., 1946 .
1935 ; The Folklore of Capitalism, Yale 11 . Kohn, H . : The Idea of Nationalism, Mac-
Univ . Press, New Haven, 1938 . millan, N . Y ., 1944.
3 . Bloomfield, L . : Language, Henry Holt, 12 . Korzybski, A. : Science and Sanity, Science
rev. ed., N. Y ., 1933 . Printing Press Co ., Lancaster, Pa ., 1933 .
4 . Brill, A . A . : Psychoanalysis, W . A . Saund- 13 . Lee, 1 . J. : Language Habits in Human
ers Co., Phila., Pa ., pp . 79-83, 1912 . Affairs, Harper Bros., N. Y., 1941 .
5 . Chase, S . : The Tyranny of Words, Har- 14. Malinowski, B . : Argonauts of the Western
court, Brace, N . Y ., 1938 . Pacific (Study of the Trobriand Islanders),
6 . Corrie, J . : ABC of Jung's Psychology, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1922 .
Frank-Maurice and Co ., N. Y ., pp . 27-62, 15 . Muncie, W. : Psychobiology and Psychia-
1927. try, C. V . Mosby, St . Louis, pp . 158, 217,
7 . Freud, S . : New Introductory Lectures on 1939 .
Psychoanalysis, Carlton House, N. Y., p. 16. Ogden, C. K ., and Richards, I . A . : The
102, 1933 ; 7a ibid ., p . 103 . 7b ibid., p. Meaning of Meaning, 1923 .
103 ., 7c ibid., p . 105, 7d ibid ., p . 98 . 17 . Walpole, H . : Semantics, W . W. Norton
8 . Goldstein, K . : The Organism, American & Co ., N. Y ., 1941 .

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