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THE indicator light sped to the top of the tall column of studs, the elevator whooshed to a stop, the door opened and Phil sturay lawn

A wall - this one was feular char You have an appointed, rather surprised that he could speak at all

"Do you have an appointment?" the wall repeated "Please answer yes or no"

"Yes," Phil said

"May I have your name, please?"

"Phil Gish" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he wondered whether he shouldn&039;t have said Jack Jones, but after hu delicately for a moment the wall said, "How do you do, Mr Gish Please come in"

The wall slid open to a surrealist pear shape Phil stepped through A sinuous ar froracious wave of a hostess who has studied ballet

"Will you please sit down?" the wall suggested "Dr Romadka will be a few secs"

Phil gulped He had the feeling that if he strayed beyond the indicated area of the room, the arm would do quite as efficient a job as had the heavier one at the wrestling arena, although probably with an "Excuse estion As if, by sinking into the chair, he had completed a circuit, the wall said, "Thank you" He stood up The wall said, "Yes?" with just a hint of iain "Thank you," the wall repeated

The room was as dark, soft and silent as a womb Evidently most of Dr Romadka&039;s patients dreamed expensively The inevitable desk had a double curve like a love seat There were no advertisee, round design, apparently copied froinal, which disturbed Phil with its suggestions of nyaze to an arch, through which he could see the beginning of a stairway He decided Dr Rory voices, a irl&039;s The latter&039;s rose to a catsquall of hate A door somewhere shut with a snap, and a bit later ahis feet Phil deduced an escalator

Dr Ro with subtlety He had on his left cheek four new, deep scratches, which he ignored completely and apparently expected Phil to He su nod They sat down and looked at each other across the curved and glea plane

The analyst smiled "Well, Mr Gish? Yes, Jack Jones toldfor things in any case, the new arrangeht Oh, Sacheverell and Mary are Mr and Mrs Akeley, Jack Jones&039; friends I thought you ht have known Incidentally, you&039;re an hour late for your appointment"

A drop of blood fell from the deepest scratch to his white shirt and spread

Phil shivered, thencrazy"

The analyst nodded "You do seeht up"

"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 ad it is a bit out of the ordinary For a full century now Aes of collective madness and herd delusion, comparable only to the Dutch tulipht have been called the Autorope for a na an unpopular book on the subject, you see Not that this current socialto be startled at What other results could have been expected when Aan to overvalue on the one hand security, censorship, an i idealism and self-sacrifice in war, and on the other hand insatiable hunger for possessions, fiercely coerence, contempt for parents and the state, and a fantastically overstimulated sexuality?"

The analyst&039;s voice rose stridently and his eyes popped, as if there were a personal elenation But the next moment he was his merry professional self

"Now, Phil, let&039;s examine how this sick society has sickened you Itany such raphy or situational therapy complete with a bottle, a blanket and a blonde love-robot We shall sirandfathers 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 s Tell me the story of your life"

Phil sed "Excuse me, Dr Roht noant to tell you about an experience, I mean, hallucination, I just had that convinced me I&039;m crazy, and then I want you to tell "

The analyst shrugged happily "As good a beginning as any Go ahead"

So Phil told hih the quarter-darkenedHe found hi under the analyst&039;s expert rein-twitching how he had long used his o as an observation post, and when he got to describing the hallucination itself he found hiet it all out

Dr Rohted as if he had been presented with a rare object of art "Beautiful!" he conificent a sys of this culture A satyress, or satyrette, prepared to inflict both love and savage stas Mary would be enraptured with it, I&039;e" He sighed aesthetically, then recalled himself "But, of course, Phil, I can&039;t expect you to be interested just now in the artistic product of your unconscious creativity You want to know about causes, sources Tell me, have you ever seen a horse?"

"Once in a circus," Phil ady is one of your interests?"

"Not that I know of"

"Recall seeing that TV showA Coltish Girl or the musical sexedyThe Horsy Set or the ancient filhtfully "You say the fur was distributed over the torso like a clinging, off the bosoht down, like rods, to end in hoofs?"

"Not exactly," Phil corrected and went on to describe the little heel bumps of the fetlocks and the slim pseudo-wrists of the pasterns

"But otherwise she was forirl? - except for the faun ears?"

"No," Phil said frowningly after a , as if , though it didn&039;t occur to me then And the upper part of her body was thrown forward a bit, if you knohat I mean, and it was balanced by quite a little runificent!" the analyst crowed "Phil, you not only have equipped your vision with accurate horse-legs, but you have made some of the necessary compensations in the rest of the anatomy that such a mode of loco a bit vacantly, as if lost in admiration for the creative powers of the all-resourceful unconscious

"Yes, but what does it indicate about my mind?" Phil asked He would have felt annoyed if he had not been so anxious "What&039;s wrong with ged pardon for it "What&039;s wrong with America?" he asked wryly "It&039;s much too early for me to arrive at any conclusions, Phil, or rather to help you arrive at your own Of course, the visual projection created by your unconscious has so references"