Часть 5

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I checked the indexes under 'unconscious'. Some of the books didn't even have it listed. One book had this to say: It is impossible here to discuss the 'new psychology of the unconscious, but exaggerated as are many of the statements made as to the revolution in psychology caused by psychoanalysis there is little doubt that it has influenced psychology permanently. And it is well that the teacher should study something of it, partly because of its suggestiveness in many parts of his work, and partly to be on guard against the exaggerated statements of extremists and the uncritical advocacy of freedom from all discipline, based upon them.

That 'uncritical advocacy of freedom from all discipline' sounded a lot like Professor Appleman. Then I found something that really sounded like Professor Appleman: Magic depends on tradition and belief. It does not welcome observation, nor does it profit by experiment. On the other hand, science is based on experience; it is open to correction by observation and experiment.

The book in which I found that passage was full of tables and graphs showing the results of experiments on frogs, salamanders, rats, apes, and human beings. It didn't mention Freud or the unconscious anywhere.

I felt sorry for Danny. He had spent two years studying about the mind from the point of view of Freudian analysis. Now he was studying about the mind from the point of view of physiology. I understood what he had meant when he said that experimental psychology had nothing to do with the human mind. In terms of psychoanalytic theory, it had very little to do with the human mind. But psychoanalysis aside, I thought the books were very valuable. How else could a science of psychology be built except by laboratory findings? And what else could you do in a laboratory except experiment with the physiology of animals and men? How could you experiment with their minds? How could anyone subject Freud's concept of the unconscious to a laboratory test?

Poor Danny, I thought. Professor Appleman, with his experimental psychology, is torturing your mind. And your father, with his bizarre silence – which I still couldn't understand, no matter how often I thought about it – is torturing your soul.

I went home, feeling sad and a little helpless. Danny would have to work out his own problem. I couldn't help him much with psychology.

The second semester of college began the following Monday, and during lunch Danny told me he planned to speak to Professor Appleman that afternoon. He looked tense and nervous. I suggested that he be polite but honest, and that he listen to what Appleman might have to say. I was a little nervous myself, but I told him I had done some reading in experimental psychology on Friday and that I thought it had a lot to contribute. How could you have a science without experimentation? I wanted to know. And how could anyone experiment on the unconscious, which, by definition, seemed to defy laboratory techniques of testing?

I saw Danny become tight-lipped with anger.

'Thanks a lot, ' he said bitterly. 'That's just what I need now. A kick in the pants from my best friend. '

'I'm telling you how I feel, ' I said.

'And I'm telling you how I feel' he almost shouted. 'Thanks a million! '

He stormed angrily out of the lunchroom, leaving me to finish the meal alone.

We usually met outside the building after our final class and went home together, but that evening he didn't show up. I waited about half an hour, then went home alone. The next morning, as I walked up Lee A venue, I saw him waiting for me in front of the synagogue where my father and I prayed.

'Where were you last night? ' he asked.

'I waited half an hour, ' I said. 'What time did you get out? '

'A quarter after seven. '

'You were with him an hour? '

'We had a long talk. Listen, I'm sorry I blew up like that yesterday at lunch. '

I told him I had a pretty thick skin and, besides, what was a friend for if not to be blown up at every now and then.

We were walking toward the trolley station. It was a bitter cold morning. Danny's earlocks lifted and fell in the stiff wind that blew through the streets.

'What happened? ' I asked.

'It's a long story, ' Danny said, looking at me sideways and grinning. 'We had a long talk about Freud, Freudians, psychology, psychoanalysis, and God. '

'He's a very fine person. He said he's been waiting all term for me to talk to him. '

I didn't say anything. But now I was grinning.

'Anyway, he knows Freud forwards and backwards. He told me that he wasn't objecting to Freud's conclusions as much as to his methodology. He said Freud's approach was based on his own limited experiences. He generalized on the basis of a few instances. a few private patients. '

'That's the problem of induction in a nutshell, ' I said. 'How do you justify jumping from a few instances to a generalization? '

'I don't know anything about the problem of induction, ' Danny said. 'That's your department. Appleman said something else, though, that made a lot of sense to me. He admitted that Freud was a genius and a cautious scientist, but he said that Freud evolved a theory of behavior based only on the study of abnormal cases. He said that experimental psychology was interested in applying the methodology of the natural sciences to discover how all human beings behaved. It doesn't generalize about personality behavior only on the basis of a certain segment of people. That makes a lot of sense. '

'Well, well, ' I said, grinning broadly.

'He also said his quarrel was mainly with the Freudians, not so much with Freud himself. He said they were happy to earn their fat fees as analysts and refused to let anyone challenge their hypotheses. '

'There's our trolley, ' I said. 'Come on! '

The trolley was waiting for a light, and we made it just in time.

Some of the people inside stared curiously at Danny as we went up the aisle looking for seats. I had grown accustomed to people staring at Danny, at his beard and side curls. But Danny had become increasingly self-conscious about his appearance ever since the time he had read Graetz on Hasidism. He looked straight ahead, trying to ignore the stares. We found seats in the rear of the trolley and sat down.

'So he said analysts don't let anyone challenge their hypotheses, ' I said. 'What happened then? '

The Chosen

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Chaim Potok

Глава 13

Часть 5

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