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What is the differential diagnosis between true and false sentiment in fiction? My examination of this question was prompted by an amusing incident with two friends. One of these is a previous patient (a first class writer cured of writer's block) who after analysis became my friend; the other is his literary agent who also happened to be a friend of mine. The author forwarded a new story to his agent, and, because he knew I would be interested in the subject matter, mailed the carbon to me. The story made a deep impression, so deep in fact that I wrote both the author and the agent to this effect. My letter to the agent crossed one from him, which contained his impression of the story: “X just delivered a very successful story… It is a conventional tear-jerker.”
The author's opinion of his work and my own were obviously diametrically opposed to that of a highly professional and experienced agent. Two questions now presented themselves: how two such diametrically opposed opinions could be possible; and whether or not some yardstick did exist which would explain such discrepancies.