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P: To do an advance-degree, or were you teaching?
L: Yes, to get an advanced degree.
P: So you stayed in Chicago a year. Did you get your degree
there?
L: No. And that's another story. I was given leave and then
came back and taught in summer school.
P: In '31.
L: Yes. In fall of 1929 I had an experience that led to an
analysis, a psychoanalysis. It liberated me from a number
of things, including this sense of guilt I had about my mother.
I had been ill that summer, but I still went on to school and
nobody could find out what was wrong with me. I thought
I might have tuberculosis, but none of the tests seemed to
indicate that. And then I had a professor at Chicago come
visit the class to talk about political motivation--where
people become interested in certain things and why they have
certain drives. This man became quite well-known; went from
Chicago to Yale. He wrote a book on psychopathology in politics.
Do you know that book--Psychopathology in Politics? I have
it out there.
P: No, I don't.
L: He told about the motivation of people and why they got sick,
and I recognize myself then. Political figures especially.
They just felt that they had divine guidance and it was their
fate to be elected to office and do certain things,-and when
they were defeated, they became ill. That was what was
happening to me. I recognized myself and I had a breakdown in
the fall and winter, and the spring I got over it and sort
of relaxed after that time. I never smoked, I never drank.
As you say, you didn't gamble, and I don't gamble either. I'll
bet you a nickel, that's the limit.
P: All right.
L: People want to bet me, I'll be them. I'll bet them a nickel,
and I have some bets on this coming year's elections. I'll
bet you a nickel Jimmy Carter will be nominated and reelected.