We have already seen that when positive authority suggests a change in behavior, the recipient will accept it provided he is capable of doing so and provided it does not require drastic modification of belief...

On Christmas. “Santa Claus represents God on assistance,” said Clyde.”Santa Claus is a negative-idealed god, the pagan god of material worship,” Leon stated. “Christmas means the rebirth, regeneration. Some people have Christmas every day. The...

One clear-cut fact does, however, emerge: placebos, prescribed for a paranoid schizophrenic by his authority referent, had served to inhibit for approximately two or three months, not imaginary pains, but somatic ones. This finding is...

By what criteria can one decide which of a person’s countless beliefs are primitive? The essential factor is that they are taken for granted: a person’s primitive beliefs represent the basic truths he holds about...

Leon reads aloud from an article in the Reader’s Digest about voting to select a national flower. Leon votes for dandelions. Joseph and Clyde vote for grass.

As soon as they leave, Leon says to me: “I disagree, sir. There are people who aren’t insane, and I’m one of them. People who generalize are mentally ill.