"The Man in the Rorschach Shirt"
Emanuel Brokaw, a world-renowned psychiatrist who retired unexpectedly at the peak of his fame and hasn't been seen in years, is encountered on a seaside bus in Southern California, walking up the aisle in a shirt adorned with the psychoanalysis-inviting blog patterns invented by early 20th century psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach.
"This child found zebras all optical illusion on an African wild. The doctor slapped the animals and made them jump! This old woman saw vague Adams and misty Eves being driven from half-seen Gardens," Bradbury wrote. "The doctor scooched in on the seat with her awhile; they talked in fierce whispered elations, then up he jumped and forged on. Had the old woman seen an eviction? This young one saw the couple invited back in!"
As the story unfolds, Brokaw explains the circumstances of his mysterious departure from psychiatry: After a new prescription for glasses improved his eyesight, he suddenly found himself hearing better, too -- and realized that, for decades, he'd misunderstood what his patients said, dispensing counsel for complaints that hadn't actually been voiced. Somehow his wisdom had worked, but he couldn't continue the charade.
This seemingly far-fetched plot isn't entirely absurd. There is evidence that a change in one sensory domain, such as sight, can cause a neurological reorganization in other sensory areas, though it wouldn't happen so rapidly or with such precision.
As for Rorschach's test, it's largely fallen from psychiatric favor, but Brokaw's enthusiasms can be forgiven. He was, after all, one of Bradbury's more autobiographical characters.
"Dogs, lightnings, cats, cars, mushroom clouds, man-eating tiger lilies! Each person, each response, brought greater outcries," Bradbury wrote of Brokaw's passage. "We found ourselves all laughing together. This fine old man was a happening of nature, a caprice, God’s rambunctious will, sewing all our separateness up in one."
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Images: 1) Card X, the last of 10 ink blot cards used in the Rorschach test. (Hermann Rorschach/Wikimedia Commons) 2) Ray Bradbury photographed at the San Diego Comic Convention in 1975 (Alan Light/Flickr)
