Strindberg's Inferno and Sullivan's "Extravasation of Meaning"—A Reply to Edmund Braun's Discussion1

I AM DELIGHTED that Dr. Braun has emphasized the practical therapeutic lessons to be drawn from Strindberg's descriptions of his mental crisis and the processes by which he recovered from it.

One fundamental lesson to be learned, and relearned, is that the boundary between madness and sanity is often not sharp and absolute, nor final. The mad person is by no means a total stranger. Strindberg spoke to this point in his remarkable essay, "Psychic Murder: (Apropos 'Rosmersholm')." Commenting on the effects of isolation he said,

Soon come false causal associations, erroneous conceptions, conclusions without sufficient basis, delusions of sight and hearing, and finally madness or a constant mania for defending oneself that finds expression in attacking other people.

Then he added,

All of these symptoms occur sporadically and to mild degrees in all people, for even if upbringing has made the human being human, upbringing is only an encumbrance which can fall off like a loose garment in moments of strong passion (Strindberg, 1968).