274
PARTISAN REVIEW
sibility of failure, is either thoughtless stupidity or a manoeuvre with
obvious motives. Nazism knew exactly what it was doing when it
exterminated the intelligentsia of the European Continent.
.v
THE INTELLIGENTSIA AND NEUROSIS
This sensitive membrane not only stretches between heteroge–
neous social classes, but between the social body as a whole and its
environment. It is tempting, and perhaps not entirely futile, to follow
up this metaphor for a while.
It
is the surface, the ectoderm, philo–
genetically the rind of the plasmatic bubble, which provides the tissues
for the nerves, the spinal cord and the brain in the embryo. The
central nervous system is derived not, as one would expect, from the
inside, the sheltered parts, the core; but from the exposed surface,
permanently submitted to the bombardment of external stimuli, to ir–
ritation and excitement, some lust and much pain. Under the influence
of this permanent buzzing shower-batl1 of stimuli the surface-tissue
gradually loses its obtuseness and undergoes that strange transforma–
tion, that 'burning-through' yrocess which finally gives rise to the
elusive, first faint glow of consciousness. The grey matter of the brain–
rind was originally skin-tissue, exposed and brow-beaten, transformed
by a unique organic metamorphosis. Even Freud, that giant of pro–
fanity, became almost lyrical where (in
Beyond the Pleasure Prin–
ciple)
he dealt with this aspect of the biology of the mind.
However, man developed a skull, in which his precious grey mat–
ter is safely packed like caviar in a box. No such casing is provided
by society for its nervous tissues. They are rather treated like corns
on the toes, a nuisance permanently trampled on and permanently
hitting back with mean little stabs.
To return from metaphor to fact: the relation between intelli–
gentsia and neurosis is not accidental, but functional. To think and
behave independently puts one automatically into opposition against
the majority whose thinking and behaviour is dependent on traditional
patterns: and to belong to a minority is in itself a neurosis-forming
situation. From the nonconformist to the crank there is only one step;
and the hostile pressure of society provides the push.
When a man in a concert hall coughs, everybody will cough,
and one feels the physical itching in one's throat. Group-mimicry is a
real force; to resic;t it means getting out of tune with one's social
environment, creates neurotic tenc;ions and feelings of guilt. One
might in theory be a thousand times in the right, and yet feel guilty
for butting against the accepted wrong, sanctioned by a tradition
