Lilith (1964)

James Patterson: Dr. Lavrier

Quotes 

• Dr. Lavrier : [at a meeting with the assembled staff]  So many of these people have such extraordinary minds. Such extraordinary sensibilities - too extraordinary, I think, sometimes. This is not a scientific theory... maybe it's romantic. But I often compare them to fine crystal which has been shattered by the shock of some intolerable revelation. I often have a feeling when I talk with them that they have seen too much with too fine an instrument. That they have been close to some extreme - to something absolute - and been blasted by it. That they have been destroyed, one might say, by their own excellence. Regarded in this way, they are the heroes of the universe. Its finest product, and its noblest casualty.

  Dr. Lavrier : Schizophrenia, however, is far from being an exclusive affliction of the superior mind. As a matter of fact, by using a substance from the blood of humans, schizophrenia has been induced in dogs, spiders, as well as men.

  Dr. Lavrier : [he has an assistant put up some slides of spider webs on a projector]  As you will note, the web of most normal spider species is as distinctive and invariable as their coloring. But the mad ones spin out fantastic, asymmetrical - and rather nightmarish designs - a most unsettling fact.

• Vincent Bruce : You see, I don't really think Lilith is unhappy. Most of the patients are. But I don't think she is. She's got some, um, uh, I don't know, she's got a kind of a...

  Dr. Lavrier : Rapture?

  Vincent Bruce : What was the word?

  Dr. Lavrier : Rapture.

  Vincent Bruce : "Rapture"? That's a very good word for it.

  Dr. Lavrier : Yes, it is a very good word. In Shakespeare's time it *meant* madness. As the words "ecstasy" and "innocence" often did. I think all of us here are concerned with rapture in some way. And when a man devotes himself to studying the nature of rapture, he may find himself dispossessed by it. That's one of the risks we take.