"Low-lands," part 3a: Discussions & Questions, pg 55-66

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

The Great Quail schrieb:

> 4. Geronimo Diaz is the first in a long line of crazy Pynchonian analysts
> and psychiatrists. Although he is clearly unhinged, Flange keeps returning
> to him, going so far as to suggest that Diaz' lunacy is proof against his
> life with Cindy. Any comments on this?


  the long line of hardly trustworthy psychologists in pynchon's work is   
  probably influenced by dr. krokowski from "der zauberberg" (the magic   
  mountain), a character in which thomas mann combined aspects of freud, jung   
  and reich. one of the magic mountain's running gags (well, mostly it's   
  presented pretty ironically) is the suggestion that hans castorp, like several 
  other patients, was either never ill or only became so in the institution   
  itself. which suggests that medicine and psychology do not heal yet make us 
  sick --- 

KFL