380
PARTISAN REVIEW
But Mr. Perls began to smile, and said, "I understand from Dr.
Tamkin that you're going into some kind of investment with him,
partners."
"You know, he's a very ingenious fellow," said Dr. Adler. " I really
enjoy hearing him go on. I wonder if he really is a medical doctor."
"Isn't he?" said Perls. "Everybody thinks he is. He talks about his
patients. Doesn't he write prescriptions?"
"I don't really know what he does," said Dr. Adler. "He's a
cunning man."
"He's a psychologist, I understand," said Wilhelm.
"I don't know what sort of psychologist or psychiatrist he may be,"
said his father. "He's a little vague. It's growing into a major industry,
and a very expensive one. Fellows have to hold down very big jobs in
order to pay those fees. Anyway, this T amkin is clever. He never said
he practiced here, but I believe he was a doctor in California. They
don't seem to have much legislation out there to cover these things, and
I hear a thousand dollars will get you a degree from a Los Angeles
correspondence school. H e gives the impression of knowing something
about chemistry, and things like hypnotism. I wouldn't trust him,
though."
"And why wouldn't you?" Wilhelm demanded.
"Because he's probably a liar. Do you believe he invented all the
things he claims?"
Mr. Perls was grinning.
"He was written up in
Fortune,"
said Wilhelm. "Yes, in
Fortune
magazine. He showed me the article. I've seen his clippings."
"That doesn't make him legitimate," said Dr. Adler. "It might
have been another Tamkin. Make no mistake, he's an operator. Perhaps
even crazy."
"Crazy, you say?"
Mr. PerIs put in, "He could be both sane and crazy.
In
these days
nobody can tell for sure which is which."
"An electrical device for truck drivers to wear in their caps," said
Dr. Adler, describing one of Tamkin's proposed inventions. "To wake
them with a shock when they begin to be drowsy at the wheel. It's
triggered by the change in blood pressure when they start to doze."
"It doesn't sound like such an impossible thing to me," said Wilhelm.
Mr. PerIs said, "To me he described an underwater suit so a man
could walk on the bed of the Hudson in case of an atomic attack. He
said he could walk to Albany in it."
"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" cried Dr. Adler in his old man's voice.
"Tamkin's Folly. You could go on a camping trip under Niagara Falls."
"This is just his kind of fantasy," said Wilhelm. "It doesn't mean a
thing. Inventors are supposed to be like that. I get funny ideas myself.
Everybody wants to make something. Any American does."
But his father ignored this and said to Perls, "What other inven–
tions did he describe?"
While the frazzle-faced Mr. Perls and his father in the unseemly,
