"sign and symptoms and symbols"

[Paul Mackin]

On Sat, 31 Jul 1999, Terrance F. Flaherty wrote:

> 
> 
> Paul Mackin wrote:
> 
> >
> > So what P may really be discussing here all the time is subjectivity and
> > objectivity. Quite po-mo. One clue is the three word sentence "Sign and
> > symptoms." Pointy is a physician by training. His professional approach to
> > the mind/body problem is defined by these two terms. The sign is what the
> > doctor sees in examining the patient or reads off the instrument. The
> > symptom on the other hand is  what is in the patients consciousness with
> > respect to his own condition.
> >
> > Above all, Pointy is way above average in being haunted by the mind/body
> > problem--he's so repressed wouldn't we all agree.
> >
> > This definitely deserves further thought.
> >
> >                 P.
> 
> Thank you Paul,
> 
> Somehow I got the idea that this short Nabokov influenced this episode.
> 
> http://www.alkar.net/moshkow/html-KOI/NABOKOW/s_s.txt


Oh, this may well be true. There is a familiarity of ring between "sign
and symptoms" and "signs and symbols." And the famous story DOES involve a
clinical case--something like paranoia or a literary version of it.

N's double s's must derive directly from language  studies, as in
the arbitrariness of the sign and the symbol as mediator or interface
between subject and object. P's double s's derive from medical diagnosis
(I'm guessing). Yet somehow the two strains come together.  

It's all grist for the mill.

		P.