SCHIZOPHRENIC WRITERS
Sir-If I am not mistaken, schizophrenia is associated with some sort of rift in the mind, the outcome of a tension between opposing forces of will and desire that is too great to be sustained, and may produce something in the nature of a "split personality." In applying the term to Australian writers I was using metaphor and hyperbole, both legitimate figures of speech. (Metaphor, indeed, is more than a figure of i speech---it is the very substance of language.) I would therefore defend myself on. purely. linguistic
grounds against the complaint "J.K.L." levels at me. Having said that, let me hasten to admit that he is, in this case, for the special reasons he puts forward, probably quite right. I agree that one should be wary of using such narrowly technical words in a loose, journalistic way. We heard quite enough from the novelists of a couple of decades ago about the "inferiority complex’ to make us cautious about importing such terms into other contexts. In point of taste, too, it is perhaps a little like using a bayonet to carve the joint, or a greasegun to serve the butter.
A. R. D.
FAIRBURN
(Auceland)
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19520229.2.12.4
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 660, 29 February 1952, Page 5
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198SCHIZOPHRENIC WRITERS New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 660, 29 February 1952, Page 5
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