DR VON HALLER: Absalonism; I do not know that word. Explain it, please.

MYSELF: It was one of Adrian’s revivals of old words. It refers to Absalom, the son of King David, who resisted and revolted against his father.

DR VON HALLER: A good word. I shall remember it.

(14)

The time was drawing near to Christmas, when I knew that Dr von Haller would make some break in my series of appointments. But I was not prepared for what she said when next we met.

“Well, Mr Staunton, we seem to have come to the end of your anamnesis. Now it is necessary to make a decision about what you are going to do next.”

“The end? But I have a sheaf of notes still! I have all sorts of questions to ask.”

“Doubtless. It is possible to go on as we have been doing for several years. But you have been at this work for a little more than one year, and although we could haggle over fine points and probe sore places for at least another year, I think that for you that is unnecessary. Ask your questions of yourself. You are now in a position to answer them.”

“But if I give wrong answers?”

“You will soon know that they are wrong. We have canvassed the main points in the story of your life; you are equipped to attend to details.”

“I don’t feel it. I’m not nearly through with what I have to say.”

“Have you anything to say that seems to you extraordinary?”

“But surely I have been having the most remarkable spiritual—well, anyhow, psychological—adventures?”

“By no means, Mr Staunton. Remarkable in your personal experience, which is what counts, but—forgive me—not at all remarkable in mine.”

“Then you mean this is the end of my work with you?”

“Not if you decide otherwise. But it is the end of this work—this reassessment of some personal, profound experience. But what is most personal is not what is most profound. If you want to continue—and you must not be in a hurry to say you will—we shall proceed quite differently. We shall examine the archetypes with which you are already superficially familiar, and we shall go beyond what is personal about them. I assure you that is very close and psychologically demanding work. It cannot be undertaken if you are always craving to be back in Toronto, putting Alpha and Castor and all those things into good order. But you are drinking quite moderately now, aren’t you? The symptom you complained of has been corrected. Wasn’t that what you wanted?”

“Yes, though I had almost forgotten that was what I came for.”

“Your general health is much improved? You sleep better?”

“Yes.”

“And you will not be surprised or angry when I say you are a much pleasanter, easier person?”

“But if I go on—what then?”

“I cannot tell you, because I don’t know, and in this sort of work we give no promises.”

“Yes, but you have experience of other people. What happens to them?”