(from Beverly Hills Stories)
- He's cookoo.
- That's your professional opinion?
- Yes.
- You're really psychologists, both you?
- Yes.
- On what basis do you make your diagnosis?
- Practical. Going by what you've told us about him. His failure in love, failure in work. His wife left him, he's never had a job.
- I said he gives away all his money and sent away his wife.
- He suffers from delusions of grandeur. Narcissism.
- He does. But he knows it. Told me himself.
- Then why does he go on doing the same things?
- Hatred of the world.
- Which is cookoo.
- Or simply another kind of vanity, egomania, delusion of grandeur, narcissism, whatever you want to call it. Seeing himself not seeing the world.
- Which is cookoo.
- Then everyone is crazy.
- Some more than others.
- What if with his giving away money, wife dismissal, night wanderings among the dispossessed he really is religious?
- He's still cookoo.
- If being religious he is holding onto beautiful ideas, fighting to hold onto beautiful ideas, being willing to go crazy to hold onto beautiful ideas, isn't he doing something good?
- You defend him because he's your buddy.
- He says he isn't a friend. Says he can't be counted on because he won't establish connections with people he doesn't believe are real.
- The people aren't real or the connections?
- Both.
- That's not crazy?
- A standard religious observation. True in its way.
- Maybe you need professional treatment. What do you do?
- Have I sent my wife away do I not work do I wander around at night?
- Well? You should write about your friend. You are writing about your friend.
