DR. BURNHAM'S ARGUMENT is that a certain type of person, desperate for the support of others, will attempt to find personal significance in even very trivial incidents, eventually becoming a captive of the new meanings he has discerned. They may assume the power of superstitions over him, perhaps completely engross him, driving him into schizophrenia. Strindberg, says Dr. Burnham, never reached that final stage. He circumvented it by creating a kind of fictive world, identifying himself with figures of legend and myth. "These identifications enabled Strindberg to organize his experience in ways that linked his internal plight with external patterns of shared myth." The result was a reborn sense of community, a reacceptance of dependence on others, and in that new frame of mind he was able to return to creative writing.

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