human
Glad to see you, Sir Kenneth, he said.
gpt
Very glad.
human
She prefers it, he said.
gpt
And since there's no telling whose mind she might look into-- He smiled.
human
After all, he finished,
gpt
Tell me, doctor, Malone said.
human
Don't you ever get uneasy about the fact that Her Majesty can look into your mind? I mean, it has disturbed some people.
gpt
Not at all, Marshall said.
human
Not in the least. After all, Sir Kenneth, it's all a matter of adjustment. Simple adjustment and no more. He paused, then added:
gpt
Like sex.
human
Sex?
gpt
Cultural mores, Marshall said.
human
That sort of thing. Nothing, really. He sat down.
gpt
Make yourself comfortable, he told Malone.
human
As a matter of fact, the delusion Her Majesty suffers from has its compensations for the psychiatrist. Where else could I be appointed Royal Psychiatrist, Advisor to the Crown, and Earl Marshal?
gpt
I suppose so, he said.
human
It must be sort of fun, in a way.
gpt
Oh, it is, Marshall said.
human
Of course, it can get to be specifically troublesome; all cases can. I remember a girl who'd managed to get herself married to the wrong man--she was trying to escape her mother, or some such thing. And she'd moved into this apartment where her next-door neighbor, a nice woman really, had rather strange sexual tendencies. Well, what with those problems, and the husband himself--a rather ill-tempered brute, but a nice fellow basically--and her eventually meeting Mr. Right, which was inevitable--
gpt
I'm sure it was very troublesome,
human
Extremely, Marshall said.
gpt
Worked out in the end, though. Ah ... most of them do seem to, when we're lucky. When things break right.
human
And when they don't?
gpt
We do what we can, he said.
human
It's an infant science. I remember one rather unhappy case--started at a summer theatre, but the complications didn't stop there. As I recall, there were something like seven women and three men involved deeply before it began to straighten itself out. My patient was a young boy. Ah ... he had actually precipitated the situation, or was convinced that he had. All basically nice people, by the way. All of them. But the kind of thing they managed to get mixed up in--
gpt
I'm sure it was interesting, Malone said.
human
But--
gpt
Oh, they're all interesting, Marshall said.
human
But for sheer complexity ... well, this is an unusual sort of case, the one I'm thinking about now. I remember it began with a girl named Ned--
gpt
Dr. Marshall, Malone said desperately,
human
I'd like to hear about a girl named Ned. I really would. It doesn't even sound probable.
gpt
Ah? Dr. Marshall said.
human
I'd like to tell you--
gpt
Unfortunately, Malone went on doggedly,
human
Yes, Sir Kenneth?
gpt
It's about Her Majesty's mental state, he said.
human
I understand that a lot of it is complicated, and I probably wouldn't understand it. But can you give me as much as you think I can digest?
gpt
Ah ... you must understand that psychiatrists differ, he said.
human
We appear to run in schools--like fish, which is neither here nor there. But what I tell you might not be in accord with a psychiatrist from another school, Sir Kenneth.
gpt
O.K., Malone said.
human
Shoot.
gpt
An extremely interesting slang word, by the way, Marshall said.
human
A glance from Malone was sufficient.
gpt
Getting back to the track, however, he went on,
human
I should begin by saying that Her Majesty appears to have suffered a shock of traumatic proportions early in life. That might be the telepathic faculty itself coming to the fore--or, rather, the realization that others did not share her faculty. That she was, in fact, in communication with a world which could never reach her on her own deepest and most important level. He paused.
gpt
Are you following me so far?
human
Gamely, Malone admitted.
gpt
In other words, when she couldn't communicate, she went into this traumatic shock.
human
Nor exactly, Marshall said.
gpt
We must understand what communication is. Basically, Sir Kenneth, we can understand it as a substitute for sexual activity. That is, in its deepest sense. It is this attack on the deepest levels of the psychic organism that results in the trauma; and has results of its own, by the way, which succeed in stabilizing the traumatic shock on several levels.
human
That last part began to get me a little, he said.
gpt
Can we go over it again, just the tune this time and leave out the harmony?
human
Certainly, he said.
gpt
Remember that Her Majesty has been locked up in institutions since early adolescence. Because of this--a direct result of the original psychosis--she has been deprived, not only of the communication which serves as a sublimation for sexual activity, but, in fact, any normal sexual activity. Her identification of herself with the Virgin Queen is far from accidental, Sir Kenneth.
human
No sex, Malone said.
gpt
That's the basic trouble.
human
It always is, he said.
gpt
In one form or another, Sir Kenneth; it is at the root of such problems at all times. But in Her Majesty's case the psychosis has become stabilized; she is the Virgin Queen, and therefore her failure to become part of the normal sexual activity of her group has a reason. It is accepted on that basis by her own psyche.
human
I see, Malone said.
gpt
Or, anyhow, I think I do. But how about changes? Could she get worse or better? Could she start lying to people--for the fun of it, or for reasons of her own?
human
Changes in her psychic state don't seem very probable, Marshall said.
gpt
In theory, of course, anything is possible; but in fact, I have observed and worked with Her Majesty and no such change has occurred. You may take that as definite.
human
And the lying?
gpt
I've just explained, he said,