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PARTISAN REVIEW
ment: "Nor wo uld he allow persons who are diabolically experienced
in the ways of group dynamics to form a group.
If
you find yourself in
a group in whi ch everyone talks jargon , simpl y wa lk out. "
Betty Peddie felt that Berryman " tried to be fri endl y and gregari–
ous, which he wasn 't. " He seemed to be too exclusive, arrogant , and
stand-offish by na ture. On one occasion in the group, he said, ' 'I'm not
worried about wha t people think of me now, I'm worried about what
people will think in 400 years. " Their conversa tion together consisted
mostly of Berryman talking, whil e she listened . He would talk about
himself, trying to impress h er with his bragging. At one time he
reported Martha's comment that "My daddy has won all the prizes,"
and sta ted, " I've slept with more women than you would believe."
During ano ther conversa tion , he declared, ' 'I'm afra id I'm go ing to kill
myself. " He tried always to convey the truth tha t he was enormously
gifted .
When a speaker fail ed to arrive one day, Berryman was obliged to
read something. He did so grudgingl y, " I get paid a thousand do ll ars
for this sort of thing !" Students came to see him and pay homage,
whil e he was worried about wha t Ka te' s attitude wo uld be. Berryman
would be cordial to Don, Betty 's husband, when he visited the hospital;
both of them had been to Harvard, and Berryman would reminisce
about teaching English A. Betty Peddie's response
to
Berryman and her
feeling of di sappointment are perhaps best expressed in a review of
R ecovery
tha t she read priva tely in group therapy after hi s death :
When he tried
to
relate
to
o ther peopl e he did make fri ends, but he
couldn 't ever be wholeh earted abo ut belong ing with th e rest of us; he
was con stantl y retreating into his uniquen ess, but he reall y thought
it was all he h ad that made him worth an ything. So he stayed shut
out, and he couldn 't make it alone.
Evidence of Berryman 's failure to p rove hi s credibility as a
recovering alcoholic was shown by hi s own Step One. Alcoholics
Anonymous p rovides in Step One tha t "We admitted tha t we were
powerl ess over alcohol-tha t our lives had become unmanageable."
Berryman 's Fi rs t Step, which he took with Dave Olsen , a man com–
monl y known as "The Big Bear" who helped with the First Step
Group, was memo rable as one o f the bes t ever. Berryman himse lf later
recall ed that "Las t Spring I wrote one whi ch (Dave Olsen )- a severe
judge-recentl y call ed one of the bes t he had ever seen ," and was
amazed tha t the man he referred to as " the savage" could have been
deceived by wha t he came to recogni ze as a "merely circumstantial
Step. " Berryman recall ed in
R ecovery:
