evansr@yale-comix.UUCP (Ronald Warren Evans) (05/05/84)
<go ahead, EAT ME!>
Partly re Jym Dyers's article:
I just finished Robert Pirsig's ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE.
I found the philosophy, for all that he claimed he used to be a genius
(Stanford-Binet IQ 170, nothing to snicker at, campers) somewhat sloppy. How
he jumps from "Humans perceive Quality pre-intellectually" to "Quality is All"
is beyond me. Then again, maybe it's just that-- beyond me. Then again, mayhaps
the Emp is wearing only the robes he got for his 0th birthday.
Natheless, I found ZEN a gripping book, and a terrifying one. The reason is
this: Pirsig says he was the victim of a bizarre form of electro-shock
"therapy" called "Annihilation ECS", which consisted of a repeated current
run through his brain and which resulted in his memory being almost
completely erased.
Now, as I understand it (please correct me if I'm wrong), this procedure
generally results in the victim becoming a near-vegetable. Pirsig was lucky.
Though he lost most of his "personal memories", that is, those of his family
and friends, he retained many of the skills that "Phaedrus" (his "former self")
possessed.
QUESTIONS:
To what extent can we say that Pirsig is a different person today?
To what extent can we say that victims of "multiple personality dissociative
reactions" (what some people call "schizophrenics", e.g. Eve, Sybil,
Billy Milligan) have actually more than one personality, self, or
soul?
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