How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Every single shrink the group had ever had, since I was in ninth grade, said that the way I lived, always working and always making money, was a "defense."
They always said it like it was something wrong. There is nothing wrong with having a defense if you're attacked, I said, inside, where they couldn't get on my tits, trying to make me say, "Oh, now I understand everything, and I am all better Mister Shrink Sir and now I will live just like you think I should." (6.14-15)
Here's the other problem with the Lightsburg therapy program: There's way too much of telling the kids what to do and how to live and not enough of helping them deal with the identity and family issues that landed them there to begin with. Pat answers aren't going to solve the problem. At least when we leave the Madmen with Leslie Schwinn at the end of the book, there seems to be a chance that they have a therapist who isn't nuttier than they are.
Quote #8
She moved around to see what I had been looking at. "Class of 1961. Just twelve years ago. They all look so normal."
"That's pretty much what I was thinking. I can't tell who was a social, who was a dork, or anything." (7.73-74)
Black-and-white school photos that resemble mug shots—the great social equalizer. Also, really great at hiding people's issues.
Quote #9
Everyone was quiet—we often were. I mean, Monday morning, not a lot of small talk subjects, how would you launch a conversation?
So, how's the medication working out?
Hey, too bad your mom got arrested again.
Hey, aren't the new sheets on the Salvation Army bunks great?" (9.3-6)
Obviously, Karl has some serious sarcasm going on here, but he makes his point—what kind of small talk do you make with peers whose lives are such a mess that small talk in itself seems ridiculous?