Quicksand by John Brunner Page A

started. "I'm sorry! It quite slipped my mind."
     
     
"Papa Freud he say . . ." Alsop drew a large black arrow to exchange the

order of two patients on the list. "You don't like the Chancery woman,

I know. No more do I, but at least I remember to hide the fact. And who

in the world is this 'Urchin' I see mentioned?"
     
     
"You should have the admission report on her. We brought her in last night

-- emergency."
     
     
Alsop rifled papers. "Not here. Holinshed must be sitting on it. Lots of

gory details in it? I find that kind usually take longest to get out of

your boss's clutches."
     
     
-- What am I to make of cracks like that? Is it camaraderie or an assertion

of superiority over Holinshed? You're fine, how am I?
     
     
Paul summed up the story as concisely as he could.
     
     
"And you find this dreadfully puzzling," Alsop commented. "I'm surprised.

Female exhibitionism is rarer than male because it has more . . . ah . . .

institutionalised outlets, like strip-tease dancing, but it does exist

and can generally be fitted into a coherent diagnosis. I'd hypothesise

an excessively restricted childhood with so much stress laid on bodily

exposure that the mind just" -- he pantomimed crumpling a sheet of paper

-- "folds up under the pressure. Did you tranquillise her on admission?"
     
     
"No, I gave her no medication at all."
     
     
"Therapeutic nihilism is an obsolete standpoint even in psychiatry,

young fellow! I worked under a medical superintendent who suffered from

it, but I thought he was the last surviving dinosaurian exponent of the

notion. Why not?"
     
     
"Well . . ." Paul fumbled for words. "Because she came quietly, I suppose

you'd say."
     
     
"The fact remains, she had a mere hour or so earlier broken a man's arm

with her bare hands. You say she's a tiny little thing. Well, a black

widow spider isn't exactly a ferocious great monster, but I wouldn't

start keeping one as a pet."
     
     
-- Stuff the sarcasm, for heaven's sake!
     
     
"But how about what's happened this morning? I never heard of a case

of hysterical aphasia where the patient set about getting the doctor to

teach her English. Besides which, she isn't aphasic."
     
     
"All right, what's she suffering from, then?" Alsop waited with a triumphant

air, expecting and receiving no answer. He sighed at length.
     
     
"I have this nasty suspicion you're convincing yourself you've run across

a brand-new subspecies of mental disorder which you can write up for

publication, talk about at the next congress you go to, and ultimately

name after yourself."
     
     
-- Sounds like a capsule version of your life story!
     
     
And a tacit admission of the truth of that followed.
     
     
"Fell into the same trap myself when I was your age or a bit younger.

Remind me to dig out the case-notes sometime. They're . . . well . . .

illuminating. Reserve judgment, young fellow, and then hang on a bit

longer still. There's nothing so damaging to your opinion of your own

competence as having to climb down in public from some limb you've

wandered out on. Brrr!"
     
     
He acted a fit of the shivers and laughed without humour.
     
     
"Let's settle the matter, shall we? Deal with her first. Charrington's not

going to cut his throat while he waits."
     
     
     
     
At first Paul was gratified by the thoroughness with which Alsop set about

double-checking the results of last night's examination of Urchin, first by

satisfying himself that the girl didn't understand English yet was capable

of talking some language of her own, then by repeating the physical

examination with a running commentary.
     
     
"Get me a urine sample, Nurse -- first thing tomorrow morning, please. . . .

We should have a blood sample too. Ought to type every patient who comes

in and give them a card showing it on discharge. Might save lives later,

case of accident. . . . Curious facial structure! Nothing Asiatic about

it whatever except this very marked