The Massachusetts Review, Inc.

Bartleby &Schizophrenia
Author(s): Morris Beja
Source: The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Autumn, 1978), pp. 555-568
Published by: The Massachusetts Review, Inc.
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& Criticism

Biography
sexes

the

nervous

the

so
In
doing,
footing.
trust
and
dependency?for

equal
for mutual

battle of the sexes. Men

perennial
of

a more

on

the way

opened

complaints?a
was

compensation

offered

emotional

that

society

and
of
History
Development
in Chartered
tice
Accountancy,

could

initial
carrying
at home.

. . .When
at

street

a mother

a young
patient,
in
to hospital

The
Symptoms.
was
admitted

slowing
activities,

at

17 he

appren
January
embarked

with
accountancy
re
was
beyond

up and impairment
at work
both
in

in
the

. . .
out

aimlessly

later, he stopped
of one year,
he

women?but

Beja

a general
change was
out all his usual

setting

corners,

from
provide

safety for all.

... On
at the age of 23 years.
school
leaving
1958,
on a career
of his own
that of chartered
choosing,
five years
firm.
For
the first
his performance
City

in

the

& schizophrenia
Morris

efficiency
office
and

it

suggest,
truce
in

exacted

traditionally

BARTLEBY

....
proach
. . .The

should

have paid a price in the form

may

price
A
clear.

secure standing ground

going
remained

...

for work

he

about
looking
to work
altogether,
at home

and

to stop
began
for 5-10
min.
and
not

did

and
A

stand
few
a

for

thereafter,
leave
the

still

weeks
period

house

except
. . .
only.
....
to stay up very
He
In general
late at nights
he pre
preferred
to remain
ferred
same
and
each
stand
in
would
the
upright
day
rigidly
....
1 to 3 hours
from
spot for periods
varying
. . .Movement
was
with
visual
associated
by the patient
perceptual
as
distortion
of the environment
at various
which
he described
times
on

one

for

occasion

a few

hours

"a flatness,"
"a flat streak of colour,"
"a painting,"
...
"I can do something
I see. For
about what
round

and

sounds

. . . ."

look

phrenia?The

1British
Dulany,
Oxford

Jr.,

at
[James

this

blank

et

Chapman,

Psychotherapeutic

Journal of Medical
et

University

al.,

eds.,
Press,

But

wall.

al.,

....

"Clinical
1

Research

turn
about

in Schizo

Approach"]

Psychology,

32

to Modern

Contributions
1963),

"a wall"

I could
example
can't
do
anything

pp.

(1959),

rpt. in Don

Psychology

391-97.

555

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(New

E.

York:

The Massachusetts

Review

we are twice
told what the patient described in this
Althoughcase history "preferred" to do, readers familiar with Herman Mel
ville's "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall
Street" will probably
be most struck by all that he would prefer not to. Yet while few readers
would
of them, indeed, almost uncanny
deny the similarities?some
the
?between
and
schizophrenic described above, many critics
Bartleby
nevertheless

resist

as

facts

any

of

application

they do so out of a general

times

even

But

"people."

readers

terms

"clinical"

do

who

to

not

Some

Bartleby.

for treating

distaste

arti

imaginative
the

recognize

legitimacy

of such an absolute restriction will remember the admonition

by the
we
us
materials
about
"no
all
know
tells
that
lawyer (who
Bartleby)
2
And they will
exist, for a full and satisfactory biography of this man."
in any

realize,

if

reductive;

are

Bartlebys

are

texts

of

common.

an

is Other,

the

from

awareness

of

or

one,
one,

clinical analysis of Bartleby would

schizoid,
personality

probably
disorder

aloofness,

difficulty

key
or

in recognizing

is to take an
study, or it is

to

to

one,

or

non-psychotic
introversion,

withdrawal,

relating

that
con

psychological

existential

refers
are

traits

schizophrenic

assumption

identify him as at least

probably

"Schizoid"

schizophrenic.
in which

an

or

one,

metaphysical
so on.
and

be
we

than

the world

because people with

refrain

can

terms

clinical
in

help rather than impair us. The mistake

is a psychological
approach: either "Bartleby"

autobiographical

of

application
common

if we

Yet

schizophrenia

socio-economic

an

more

should

either/or
a

so

an

easy

much

it is not merely

usually acknowledge,
symptoms
the victim

too

that

case,

and

"reality,"

an

acute

coupled with an inability to express ordinary hostility or

over-sensitivity
aggressive feelings. But we may feel that even the term schizoid does
not do justice to the depths of Bartleby's disturbance. "I think, sir, he's
a little
luny" (p. 16), says Ginger Nut with the brutality of innocence;
his comment comes fairly early in the story; by the end it would prob
seem

ably

to most

people

to

err

on

the

side

of

understatement.

We
learn little about Bartleby's "case history"?though
enough to
feel that his parallels with the patient described in the passages quoted
at the start of this essay are not gratuitous. If there is any doubt, let me
indulge

in a citation

After
did

not

leaving
hold

school
any

2
Selected Writings
1952),

p.

of

3. Hereafter,

one

another

case

. . . the

patient

job

longer

of Herman
references

study,

that

obtained
than

in the

"A.

odd

many

several

Melville

of

weeks;

J.":

jobs.
neither

. . .He
was

he

(New York: Random House,

text

are

to

this

edition.

556

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& Criticism

Biography

He
several
occupations.
stayed home.
and he gradually
withdrew
behavior
seclusive
His
run
he would
the house
visited
life. When
community
people
his head
sit with
and hide
the bed. He would
under
the room
regular

in performing

became

altogether

most

of

the

family
he
occasions

made

wait

rather

to get

out

him

refuse
were

they
remarks

to dine

with

from
out

of

bowed
rest

the

. .

through.
to his mother;

. On

of

some
"I

e.g.,

am

car

himself

seated

to bring A.
to
some
time

the mother
finally
persuaded
It
clinic
for an examination.

the worker's

of

He

building.

him

and

persuade
stairs
the

under

near

took

to enter

the

clinic

the waiting

room,

. . .3

the wall.

facing

he would
until
strange

social worker
visiting
local mental
hygiene

the

finally

....

automatic"
A

would

the

and

Sometimes

time.
and

the

in

duties

his

unemployable
more
became

of the

so I found him there, standing all alone in the quietest

. . ."
yards, his face towards a high wall
("Bartleby," p. 43).
"And

If Bartleby is indeed psychotic, his disorder is probably the most com

mon of all psychoses: schizophrenia. More
specifically, I believe, he dis
the

plays
type,
silent,

yet

4
to

given

others,

depressed,

of ordinary
or

acts

repetitive

least

phrases

possibly
("I

would

I. Rabin,
"Schizophrenia,
E. Harris,
eds., Case Histories
York: Harper
and Brothers,

(New
4
Although

a number
to

phrenic"

Bartleby,

143;

Henry
Annual

prefer

not

have

been

make

refraining

and compulsively
not

A. Murray,
"Bartleby
A Symfosium:
1965,

the

prone

the

Psychology
term

"schizo
or have

that

See,

1950),
York:
(New
I," in Howard

and

Burton

than

Sloane,

Bartleby

to
all

to").

p. 26.
have
applied
more
much
specific
sense.
in its clinical

Study
and

excessively
sense
from

in Arthur
Form,"
Simple
in Clinical
and Abnormal

the implications
of the term
pursued
Herman
Melville
Arvin,
(New York: William
ard Chase,
Herman
A Critical
Melville:
p.
1949),
ed., Melville

immobile,
do

1947),
commentators

of
few

autistic,

catatonic

"schizophrenia,

and

apathetic

outwardly

emotion,

3
Albert
Robert

of

patterns

He

is detached,
withdrawn,
or associations
that
remarks

at

display
to

behavior

and

symptoms

withdrawn."

e.g.,
p.

Newton

243;

Rich

Macmillan,
P. Vincent,

Scrivener

(Kent,

Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1966), p. 9. Kingsley Widmer

in The
Ways of Nihilism: A Study of Herman Melville's Short Novels (Los Angeles:
of
is skeptical
this "uncertain
112,
p.
a
make
it seem more
For
useful.
study will
of
briefer
the specific
for
the
with
grounds
associating
Bartleby
see my
of schizophrenia
I cite,
Fiction
111.:
category
Psychological
(Glenview,
203.
Scott, Foresman,
p.
1971),

California
clinical

State

category":
statement

Colleges,
I hope

1970),

my

557

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The Massachusetts
trait

The

that

one

leads

to

of Bartleby's most notable

continued motionlessness"
the

"In

says:

lawyer

Review
"catatonic

specify

(pp. 20, 24).

answer

to my

course

is of

type"

one

"his great stillness," his "long

Of Bartleby's first appearance,

characteristics:

a motionless

advertisement,

young

man

one morning
stood upon my office threshold, the door being open,
for it was summer" (p. 11). Melville
has carefully arranged this ap
so

pearance

that

we

are

not

that

told

walked

Bartleby

or

into,

even

see this fea

entered, the lawyer's office: he is there, immobile. We
ture develop, but even our first glimpse of him shows that he has been
immobile at the best of times. On the first occasion of Bartleby's use of
his enigmatic phrase, "without moving
in a
from his privacy, Bartleby,
"
not
to'
singularly mild, firm voice, replied, CIwould prefer
(p. 13),
his mildness and immobility conveying the fact that what he is doing is
not

so much

an

act

as a

form

of

From

inaction.

that

point

on

"he

never

to dinner; indeed ... he never went anywhere"

(p. 16). Event
since Bartleby will not: as the
ually the lawyer is forced to move,
scrivener says in a rare burst of volubility, "I like to be stationary" (p.
told that he must be taken to the Tombs,
41). Finally,
Bartleby "of
fered not the slightest obstacle, but, in his pale, unmoving way, silently

went

acquiesced" (p. 42).

Such quotations can perhaps help to recall for the reader the emo
tional experience of reading "Bartleby"?an
experience which reading
such case histories as those I have cited (moving as they may be in
cannot begin to match. We
are concerned here with a
themselves)
terms which
seem
truly powerful work of art, and the psychological
to
in
themselves
little.
when
"applicable"
Indeed,
Bartleby
clarify very
their purposes are distorted in order to provide us with
handy labels,
they

end

by

perverting

our

aids in developing relatively

painful
missing)
Bartleby's
catatonic

type,

withdrawn,"

to

response

the

may

story?and

even

become

painless ways of dealing with (that is, dis

case. Clearly,
terms like "schizophrenia,
however

accurate,

do

little

more

than

"come
identify symptoms. To understand Bartleby in any real way?to
to terms" with him in any but a
would have to
superficial sense?we
go beyond them and attempt to get at what a therapist, again, would
. . . "incurable disorder." That
call the etiology of Bartleby's
is not
course:
"it was his soul that suffered, and his soul I could not
easy, of
reach" (p. 25).
Recent psychological
like to
thought may help; specifically, I would
explore Bartleby's plight in light of the work of R. D. Laing. Probably
the most forceful aspect of
Laing's approach has been his refusal to re

558

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& Criticism

Biography
for

schizophrenics,

gard

our context,

In

manner

the

reinforces

the

normal

critical

interpretations

lawyer
which

the

and

rest

the

and
see

the

as "us."

us

of

to distinguish

the temptation

resisting

between

as "them,"

example,

in any

schizophrenic
two men

facile

Bartleby
as "doubles"

of one another.5 But although those interpretations have sometimes been

enlightening,
they have strongly stressed what the scrivener and his be
havior

to us

reveal

the

about

not

lawyer,

we

what

learn

about

Bartleby.

Of course, many critics (nowadays, perhaps most) do in fact claim that

and many others
the story is the lawyer's more than it is Bartleby's,
not
assume
in
tie
with
that
But
does
it.
my own experience
implicitly
me
as
have
able to tell from
of Melville's
far
I
been
for
and?as
story;
conversations

my

with

friends,

and

colleagues,

most

students?for

peo

we
ple, the center of interest remains Bartleby. And if that is so, then
want to know how he may have come to his present pass?and
indeed
where he is.We want to know what
is "wrong" with him, and not
just what his being the lawyer's double reveals about the lawyer.
the lawyer
In Laing's
terms?indeed
his most famous ones?both
and Bartleby are men with divided selves: cut off from others and from
the world,
but also self-divided, dissociated.6 Laing believes (and is of
course far from alone in doing so) that "no one can begin to think, feel
or

act

now

the

from

except

starting

or her

of his

point

own

alienation."

In their different ways both Bartleby and the lawyer try to avoid the
necessity to "begin to think, feel or act." Bartleby's mode of avoidance
to call him "luny";
leads the world
the lawyer's mode?he
is, after
an
to
the
the
him
man"
world
all,
give
"eminently safe
(p. 4)?leads
are
title of Master
vast
in Chancery.
there
differences
then,
Clearly,
in the

success

outward

5
See,

for

example:

of

their

Mordecai

two

but

situations,

"Melville's

Marcus,

essen

it is nevertheless

Bartleby

as

Psycho

logical Double," College English, 23 (February 1962), 365-68; Widmer,

Ways of Nihilism, pp. 112 ff.; Robert Rogers, A Psychoanalytic Study of
the

Double

in Literature

C. F. Keppler,
67?70;
of Arizona
Press,
versity

pp.

6
R. D.

Madness

1972),

Laing, The Divided

(1959;

State

(Detroit:
Wayne
The
Literature
pp.

the

University
Second
Self

Press,
(Tucson:

1970),
Uni

115-20.

Self: An Existential

rpt. Harmondsworth:

7
The Politics of Exferience

of

Penguin,

(1967;

Study

in Sanity and

1965).

rpt. New York: Ballantine,

1968),

to
in textual
hereafter
In a study
abbr.
references.
[12],
Exferience
on
re
for students,
Daniel
R. Buerger
designed
guide
"Bartleby"
astutely
some excerpts
Politics
from The
he does not
of Exferience,
prints
although
see Melville's
their relevance:
the Scrivener"
discuss
and
the Prob
"Bartleby
p.

lem of Perceftion

(New York: Harper

and Row,

1974), pp. 32?36.

559

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Review

The Massachusetts
rial to recognize
For

world.

experience

come

tempt

of being-in-the

in their modes

is a product

'normal'

estranged

fundamental

denial,

repression,

forms of destructive

and other

is radically

of

from

structure

the

action

of

being"

p. 27).

to

sense

may

look

to make

that we

It

as we

Insofar

call

introjection

....

{Experiencey
may

we

projection,

splitting,
on

some basic similarities

"what

upon

Bartleby's

encounter

in

of

is a gross

'patients'

puts
a

travesty,

that

as a

adaptation

truly "sane." As Laing

himself

in

accuracy

mode

we

view,

at

pathetic

it, "the madness

a

mockery,

grotesque

caricature of what the natural healing of that estranged integration we

call sanity might
be" {Experiencey p. 144). These
remarks, though
are

general,

passage reminiscent
the

degree
touch"
with

we?those
inner

of

us who
time

and

space

more

Bartleby;

of

are

is a

specific

of the Cave. Laing

of Plato's Allegory

to which
"the

to

in regard

suggestive

surely

is discussing
"out

"normal"?are

of

consciousness":

we
as though
almost
all had
is precisely
suggesting
we
call the outer world.
whatever
of what
knowledge
to see, hear,
if some
What
of us then
started
would
touch,
happen
more
taste
than
the per
be
We
confused
would
smell,
things?
hardly
son who
inner
first has vague
intimations
into,
of, and then moves
space
The

I am

situation

total

and

lack

of

time.

This

is not

He

any

is where

at all here:

has

the
he

labeled
catatonic
person
is all there.
(P.
127)

often

gone.

The essential point to recognize about Bartleby's behavior is that from

his perspective it is not silly, or inappropriate, or "absurd," but relevant,
rational,
we
call
attempt

and

proper,
schizophrenia
to avoid

"preferable"?indeed
a
refuge?the

becomes
insanity.

In

other

words,

For

inevitable.
awful
it

is a

what
him,
a
desperate

result

of

tactic.

According

to

that gets labeled schizo

the "behavior
uwithout
Laing,
exception"
a
a
invents
in order to live in an
person
phrenic is
special strategy that
unlivable situation" (pp. 114?15). Of course, words like "tactic" and
sense in which
"strategy" should not be confused with the pejorative
a cynic might use them to refer to malingering,
patients
gold-bricking
who
like

are

seen

Bartleby

as
are

simply
desperate

"trying
ones,

to get
resorted

the

attention":
to at

great

devices

of

people

cost.

The
fact that such behavior seems the only rational choice to people
even by profes
in Bartleby's sort of plight is too often unrecognized,
sional therapists. Of the patient described at the start of this essay, the
writers of the case study remark that "he had no insight," as shown by
his persistence "in the view that his behaviour was justifiable and could

560

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& Criticism

Biography

a layman,
be logically explained"
p. 393). To
("Clinical Research,"
such terminology seems to lend support to Laing's attacks on the myopia
of so many psychiatrists in their relationship to their patients. Of course
this patient views his behavior as justifiable, and to be sure that behavior
could "be logically explained";
in effect he asks, like Bartleby, "Do
see
reason
not
the
for
you
question
("Bartleby," p. 28)?a
yourself?"
we

integral
an
ple

from

expect

might

as having

described

thing,

are

there

amputated

therapist

"no

leg.

insight"
certain

You

can

as

as much

things
remove

you
some

from

is quoted:

patient.

"Although

can

The

do without.
of

part

patient

are one

you
For

you

and

exam
you

still

remain yourself. My body is not quite separate but not quite integral
either" ("Clinical Research," p. 398). Laing, in discussing the anxieties
of dissociation from one's own body?the
fears of the "unembodied
self"?also

that

recognizes

"there

is a sense

of

course,

in which

such

an

attitude

could be the height of wisdom":

"when, for example, Socrates
maintains
that no harm can possibly be done to a good man. In this
case, 'he' and his 'body' were dissociated" (Divided Selfy p. 68).
At one point inMelville's
story, the lawyer begs Bartleby to "begin
"
to be a little reasonable":
'At present I would prefer not to be a little
reasonable,' was his mildly cadaverous reply" (p. 26). Such a remark
makes him seem somehow
inside himself and outside
simultaneously
himself, as if he were both a patient and a therapist calling attention to
the patient's behavior. And, as always, Bartleby's words suggest that his
behavior

is a volitional

vocatively?made.
priate
cannot

response,
comprehend

To
whether

response

to his

situation,

moreover,
Bartleby,
or
"reasonable"
"such

it
not.

perverseness?such

consciously?even
is the preferable,
The
lawyer
unreasonableness"

pro

of

appro
course
(p.

he demands of Bartleby, "What earthly right have you to

20). When
Do
here?
stay
you pay any rent? Do you pay my taxes? Or is this
property yours?" the scrivener is silent: "He answered nothing"
(p.
33).

Inevitably?for

the

questions

are

irrelevant.

From

Bartleby's

per

spective, his right to remain is not earthly. It lies not in taxes and prop
erty, but in something other, or something internal: in mind, or in soul.
I hope my comments do not make it seem as if I am embracing some
sort of sentimental or excessively "romantic" view of either
Bartleby
or schizophrenic patients. I am
especially wary of this danger because
I am not certain that it is one that Laing himself always avoids, in his
desire to convey the ways in which what we call mental disease may
be health, and the ways in which "breakdowns" may in fact be or be
come "breakthroughs." As Robert Coles put it
during a panel discussion

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The Massachusetts
on

it is

Laing,

to overlook

misleading

Review
the

"terror

. . . that

some

people

on this earth feel": "I suspect there is a difference between us and the
mad patients and I suspect that we don't know it quite as well as the
8
mad patients do." Or as Bartleby replies to the lawyer's attempts to
"I know where I am" (p. 43). We may
comfort him in the Tombs,
be tempted to romanticize Bartleby as an existential hero (certainly
many critics are), a prophet better off in his sane madness than the rest
of us in our mad sanity; but Bartleby knows where he is.
refrain of "I would prefer not to" is a sign of
Still, if Bartleby's
mental
illness, it is also his forceful psychic response to exis
anguished
tence on this earth. As Laing
(like of course other psychologists before
to
has
been
wise
perceive, the enigmatic statements of
him)
enough
"are

patients

psychotic,

not

because

not

may

they

be

but

'true'

because

the
they are cryptic: they are often quite impossible to fathom without
But
for
them
us"
patient decoding
Bartleby
{Dwided Selfy p. 192).
would prefer not to. So when we ask, with the perplexed lawyer, "what
is the
have

for

reason"
"Do

seen,

Bartleby's
see
not

you

the scrivener
and
behavior,
the reason
for
yourself?"

replies,
of

few

as we
us

confidently respond that yes, to be sure we do, certainly.

out of an urge to dive rather than be eminently
Nevertheless,
I would
like to suggest that Bartleby
is a victim of what Laing

will

safe,
calls

form" entails "par

in its "preliminary
"ontological
insecurity"?which
tial loss of the synthetic unity of self, concurrently with partial loss of
relatedness with the other," while in its "ultimate form" we have "the
total loss of relatedness with
hypothetical end-state of chaotic nonentity,
self

and

faced with
?we

9
We

other."

resort

may

are

always

"between

the fear of the latter?or,

to whatever

being

and

non-being,"

measures

of

security

we

and

of the former

for that matter,

can

find.

Laing

quotes a patient, not his own: "The only thing I was sure of was being
a 'catatonic, paranoid and schizophrenic.'
on
I had seen that written
me
at
an
and
had
chart.
and
That
least
substance
my
gave
identity
remark is reminiscent of
personality"
{Divided Selfy p. 173). That
man:
the underground
paranoia,
Dostoevsky's
study in existential
What
A
is
he?
how
Answer:
"Question:
very pleasant it
sluggard;
would have been to hear that of oneself! It would mean that I was
8

D.

"R.

Robert

eds.,

and Anti-Psychiatry:
and
R. D. Laing

Symposium,"

Anti-Psychiatry

in Robert
(New

York:

and
Boyers
Perennial

1971), pp. 223-24.

Library,
9R.

Laing

Orrill,
D.

Laing,

Self

and

Others,

2nd

ed.

(Harmondsworth:

1969), p. 51.

562

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Penguin,

& Criticism

Biography

defined, it would mean that there was something to say about

positively
10
A
me."
is one described in both
patient closer to Bartleby, however,
The Divided
and
"a young man who
Self and Others?Peter,
Self
was preoccupied with guilt because he occupied a place in the world,
even in a
physical sense":
A

of

aspect

peculiar

was
had
tion

from

no

that

and

had

earlier

did

not

he would

presence
want
to have

the

central

enterprise

his

physically
and underwent

his

felt

one would

to make

that

been

warm,

kept

during
parents
as though
treated
he
his

was

childhood

his

sistently
that to make

came

his

. . . He

ignored.
largely
been well
fed

anything
of his

that

he

separa
physical
con
had been

he

exist.

'really'
have

in

for

no
Yet

years.

the world

in

presence
cared

. . . He

believed

to

extremes

to go

such

to do with

and thus he
him,
to be
{Self and
nobody.

life

Others, pp. 137-38)

Such a "solution"
the

is no help at all?though
a Peter

of

perspectives

and

seem

Bartleby,

from

reasonable

perfectly
who

an

to share

aware

ness of what

is happening to (of what they are doing to) themselves.

is the way of avoiding non-being
Tillich:
"Neurosis
Laing quotes
by
"
as
avoiding being."
Just
schizophrenia can be the result of a desperate
attempt to avoid insanity, so Bartleby's retreat from being may result
from

It

an

to

attempt

from

escape

non-being.

to me

seems

that Bartleby
is especially relevant to the last of
in
Laing's "three forms of anxiety encountered by the ontologically
secure person: engulfment,
implosion, petrification"
(Divided Selfy p.
43).

a retreat

entails

Petrification

into

one of those modes

of self-preservation

our

One

self-destruction.

stasis

so dread

may

or

even

by which we
being

catatonia

which

are accomplices

"petrified,"

"turning,

is

in
or

being turned, from a live person into a dead thing, into a stone" (p.
46), that the terror brings about what is feared. Laing tells of a young
woman who dreamed that her parents had turned into stone, and who
afterward herself fell "into a state which was
remarkably similar to the
of
her
that
she
had
dreamt about"; and
physical petrification
family
then

an

he makes

suggestive
10
Notes

important

observation

which

strikes

me

as

extremely

in regard to Bartleby:
from

the

trans.

Underground,

Constance

Garnett,

rev.

Avrahm

Yarmolinsky, in Three Short Novels of Dostoevsky (New York: Anchor

Books, 1960), p. 194.
11
Divided Self, p. 111. Cf. Paul Tillich, The Courage To Be (New

Haven:

Yale

University

Press,

1952),

p.

66.

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The Massachusetts
It seems

to be

dreaded

can

rence.

to

Thus,

one's

preserving
a
of
way

or

not

one

being

that

is

stone
one

regards

as

Laing
as
used

universally

into

into

or who

sonalized"?and,

at some

that

encompassed

turned

is turned

autonomy,

law
be

those very
point
to forestall
their

a stone

else.

who

ignores
it"

someone

by
as

observes,
a means

by

of

of
secretly
a means
of

a stone

into

"an

"thing,"

becomes

(P.

51)

one's
one
is a

"depersonalization
with
dealing

the

occur

actual

becomes

someone

most

dangers

the means

one's
becomes
forgo
autonomy
to play
to feign
death,
possum,
....
turn oneself
aliveness
To

it;

safeguarding

When

a general
themselves

Review

other

identity
is "deper
technique
he
when

too tiresome or disturbing"

(p. 46).
it is easy enough to show that Bartleby
is regarded and
Certainly
treated as an inorganic object, a thing, even by the fundamentally
kind
and impressively patient lawyer:

becomes

Had

there

in his

about

from

the

turning

last

least

pale

as

But

of

it was,

some

bust

plaster-of-paris

also compares Bartleby

column

had

words,
I
doubtless

him,

premises.

my

or
anger,
impatience
impertinence
there
been
ordinarily
anything
him
have
should
dismissed
violently

uneasiness,

in other

manner;

human

He

the

been

should
of

out

temple"

(p.

30),

of

soon

thought

of

(P.

13)

doors.

soap" (p. 17), or "the

to "a bit ofWindsor

ruined

as

have

Cicero

and

him

describes

as

"a

chamber" (p. 29). Even at one of his most sympathetic

the "predestinated
when he recognizes
moments,
purpose" of his life
to be that of providing Bartleby with "office-room,"
the lawyer ex
in
himself
similar
"I
shall
presses
persecute you no more; you
imagery:
are harmless and noiseless as any of these old chairs" (p. 35). Surely
fixture

at
that

least
he

in my

one
has

of
been

the

sources

looked

upon

for

Bartleby's
and
treated

having
as one.

become

"thing"

is

But Laing provides still further hints indicating the sources behind
have already touched upon the paradoxical
Bartleby's petrification. We
that
has
possibility
adopted petrification as a form of self-pro
Bartleby
tection. Unfortunately,
like so many psychological defenses, petrification
than what
is not merely
futile but more destructive
it is supposed to
a
the
defense
the
whole of the
"If
world:
provide
against?notably,
the individual retracts his lines
individual's being cannot be defended,
of defence until he withdraws within a central citadel. He is prepared
to write off everything he is, except his 'self.' But the tragic paradox is
that the more the self is defended in this way, the more it is destroyed"
{Divided Selfy p. 77).

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& Criticism

Biography
this

The

"false

which

be

will

seen,

is the

self"

relates with

divorced

from
on

observations

and is observed

in

the

of

self."

outer

world,

but which

by others,

In

self.

false-self

"the

of its

"false

the

"unembodied"

"inner,"

development

by means

of

repudiation
one
has
that

"personality"

"true,"

the

as

however,

that world

one's

or defended

be protected

the self may

Alternatively,
denial:

system,"

is

Laing's
we
may

trace as well Bartleby's development as Melville's

story proceeds: "The
observable behaviour that is the expression of the false self is often per
see a model child, an ideal husband, an industrious
fectly normal. We
clerk.

This

facade,

however,

more

becomes

usually

more

and

stereo

(D'wided
typed, and in the stereotype bizarre characteristics develop"
"if the individual delegates all transactions be
Selfy p. 99). Finally,
tween himself and the other to a system within his
is not
being which
then
the
as
world
is
and
all
that
'him,'
unreal,
experienced
belongs to
this system is felt to be false, futile, and meaningless"
(p. 80). While
the

false-self

also

"becomes

that

'harassed'
to

belongs

more

becomes

system

by compulsive
more
and more

it becomes

and

"extensive"
behaviour
dead,

it

"autonomous,"
and

fragments,"
unreal,

"all

mechani

false,

cal"

the inner self remains "transcendent,

(p. 144). In the meantime,
and thus never to be grasped, pinpointed,
unembodied,
trapped, pos
sessed" (pp. 94?95).
Given
such distinctions, when
the false self is
there may be nothing left.
Moreover,
dividing the self in such a way not only entails dissociation
from and within oneself, but inevitably leads as well to dissociation from
repudiated,

In
the
repudiating
however
"falsely"?one

others.
others,

Bartleby
others

of

But

self?the

self
all

repudiates

after

all

contact

that

with

form

that

an

reveals

surely

appeal

to

tries,

cannot

the

to

relates

other

people.

obviously does that, yet even as he does so his dissociation

takes

mode

false

for

lawyer

from
some

contact.
the

however

lawyer,

he

sincerely

seem

sufficiently

to help
Bartleby, whose increasingly disconcerting behavior seems to be
a way of
getting back at him in some awful manner. Indeed, this attack
apparently takes the form, as it often does in mental patients, of imita
tion

of

the

seen

person

as

the

persecutor

or

aggressor.

At

the

start

of

story we

are introduced to the

lawyer as "a man who, from
his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the
easiest way of life is the best. Hence,
though I belong to a profession

Melville's

proverbially

and

energetic

even

nervous,

nothing

of that sort have I ever suffered

us

he

that

is "one

of

those

unambitious

to

at

turbulence,

to invade my
lawyers

who

times,

peace." He
never

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address

yet

tells
a

The Massachusetts

Review

jury," preferring "the cool tranquillity of a snug retreat" (p. 4). In

other words, he is a person who would prefer not to do anything very
active. Even his later attempts to get rid of Bartleby can hardly be taken
than anything else display his deep
seriously, and perhaps they more
toward
inaction
and
tendency
passivity.
In that context, Bartleby's behavior comes to seem an increasingly
grotesque parody of the man to whom he has attached himself.
is a tendency

There

characteristics
The
tion
The
same

hatred

of
to

begins

of
the

the

for
the

person

to assume

false

self

upon

whom

of

the

with

by the false
of the other,

other
the will

counter to the other's will.

and more

compliance
evident
when

becomes
impersonation
turn
into a caricature.

impersonation
as its
compliance

more

its

the

is not

self

it may

for

the

of

is based.

. . .

impersona
the
entirely
be directly

{Divided Self, p. 100)

This "concealed indictment" of the impersonated other "reaches itsmost

as the "echolalia
extreme form" in such manifestations
[repetition of
words or phrases], and flexibilitas cerea [inert flexibility] of the cata
case
in Bartleby's
tonic" (p. 102). The
indictment is less concealed
near
to
the
the
the
the
he
in
end
of
Tombs
says
when,
story,
lawyer,
"I know you . . . and I want nothing to say to you" (p. 43).
to be condescending
toward or
it has become commonplace
Although
even contemptuous
of the lawyer, Bartleby's quiet indictment becomes
all the more devastating in its effect upon us when we realize that the
is more
patient,
lawyer
of us would
be.
(Or

?how
the

we

of us have

many

who

students

more
than

appear

generous,
are:

responded
in our

and
if,

say,

more
we

so admirably

offices

and

reveal

self-aware
are

than

most
I

teachers?as

and so personally
in obscure

ways

am

to
that

they are, or potentially are, Bartlebys?) Yet even the lawyer fails.
An indictment of the lawyer is a mode of accusation against the
world he represents, just as withdrawing
from others entails withdraw
12 or an
other
ing from that world. People trapped in a "double bind"
12
This

schizo
of
the etiology
explore
a
of Schizophrenia,"
Theory
state that a per
1 (October
the authors
251?64;
Science,
1956),
son in a double
the
to detach
interest
from
his
bind may,
for example,
"try
on his own
external
internal
world
and concentrate
therefore,
and,
processes
a withdrawn,
individual"?which
the appearance
of being
mute,
give
perhaps
...
himself
in ways
which
that
defend
"is another
he may
of saying
way
or catatonic"
as
have
been
described
(p. 256).
paranoid,
hebephrenic,

phrenia:
Behavioral

term

see

originated

Gregory

Bateson,

in an

et

to
attempt
"Toward

al.,

566

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Biography
wise

impossible, unlivable
in

prisoners

in the notable

situation may?as

concentration

the

camps?abandon

world

of

instance
the

and

aspects

of one's supposed self that are most "in" the world. In the brutal par
lance of everyday life, Bartleby dissociates himself from the outer world
The
seems

can

he

because

no

all

along

longer

take

it.

form of withdrawal

ultimate

to desire

death?in

from the world

existential

is death. Bartleby
to be

terms,

non

choosing

as, in a paradoxical but relentlessly logical way,

being over being?even
his retreat into a death-like state of immobility may also reflect his fear
of death: we have seen Laing quote Tillich
on neurosis as "the way of
avoiding

non-being
he

Peter?whom

by avoiding
as

quotes

being"
once

having

Selfy p.

(Divided

111).

sort

been

"I've

said,

of

Of
dead

in a way. I cut myself

off from other people and became shut up in
myself. And I can see that you become dead in a way when you do
this" (p. 133)?Laing
writes that he had "set about trying to reduce
his whole being to non-being;
he set about as systematically as he could
to become nothing. Under
the conviction that he was nobody, that he
was nothing, he was driven
by a terrible sense of honesty to be nothing"
If
that terrible honesty,
shares
its most pressing
(p. 131).
Bartleby
manifestation
is probably his refrain of "I would prefer not to." At first
to be
ence

sure

it refers

becomes

more

to
merely
proofreading,
and more
encompassing

but

as time

until

in

goes
the

end

on

its refer
it becomes

all-inclusive?until,
indeed, it refers to all of life and living. For poor
would
prefer not to.
Bartleby
the
dilemma of the person "in an alienated untenable posi
Discussing
tion,"

says

Laing

that

as

soon

as he

"realizes

that

he

is in a box,

he

can

try to get out of it. But since to them [others] the box is the whole
to stepping off the end of
worldy to get out of the box is tantamount
the world, a thing that no one who loves him could sit
by and let hap
or
pen" (Self and Othersy p. 41). Good intentions can be murderous,
simply ineffective: when on the second occasion of Bartleby's refusal to
read

copy

and

his

statement

that

he

"would

prefer

not

to,"

the

lawyer

finds himself "not only strangely disarmed" but "in a wonderful man
he tells us: "I began to reason with
ner, touched and disconcerted,"
him" ("Bartleby,"
p. 14).
is all well and good, but not likely to work. Later, the
That
lawyer
is wiser, and he recognizes that it is Bartleby's "soul that suffered, and
his soul I could not reach" (p. 25). Indeed, the first task in
helping
a person with
Bartleby's problems is no doubt to reach that person. The
"sense of identity requires the existence of another by whom
one is

567

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The Massachusetts

Review

known"
is not enough,
that, however,
{Divided Self, p. 139). Even
as the lawyer realizes still later,
the
divine
"recalling
injunction: 'A new
commandment

give

unto

that

you,

ye

one

love

"

another'

("Bar

that call involves a complete breakdown in the

tleby," p. 34). Obeying
normal relationship between employer and employee, just as Laing calls
for the complete breakdown
in the traditional relationship between
psychotherapist and patient: "The main agent in uniting the patient, in
allowing the pieces to come together and cohere, is the physician's love,
a love that recognizes the
patient's total being, and accepts it, with no
attached"
strings
{Divided Selfy p. 165).
story will fail to
Only an inordinately cynical reading of Melville's
come
to
the
recognize that
lawyer does
experience genuine love for the
scrivener. "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!"
ends his narration: this from
the man

who,

as we

ordinarily human"
if ever

it rarely

have

seen,

has

in his employee.

can

attain?the

earlier

felt

the

absence

But his love never

absolute

totality

of

"anything

attains?perhaps
demanded

apparently

or needed

by Bartleby. As a result, the lawyer does not succeed in

wall
that
thrusting through the wall that Bartleby has set up?the
has
and
become.
As
life
ends
his
lives
Bartleby
facing walls,
Bartleby
we

may

in regard

in mind
keep
to the
danger

Laing's
of the

quotation?in
"tendency

the
to become

context

of

what

one

warning

perceives"

a patient, Julie: "That chair . . . that wall. I could be that wall.

?of
It's a terrible thing for a girl to be a wall"
{Divided Self, p. 198).
Or

for

a young

man,

too.

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