The title of Brian Evenson's "Internal" is a three-way play on words. The story is about an intern who is sent by two different doctors into isolation to secretly observe their brothers. The intern begins to analyze himself/herself more than the other person (in the first instance, there wasn't anyone to observe). So the focus becomes the intern self-diagnosing, hence "internal." After reading the story you get the impression that this intern may actually be a patient, so the intern may actually be interred at a at a facility.
The idea that the intern is actually a patient hinted at near the beginning when Dr. Rauch refers to the intern as "hardly the typical intern" and the other interns do not explain anything, they just shake their heads. Another indication is that in the intern is always in isolation, never living with anyone. The only mention of color in the story is when the intern describes his first room as "The walls are ill with dirt, cleaner white squares scattering them..." By the end of the story, the intern is definitely disturbed, projecting his motivations on to the person in the other room and plotting to stab the other in the eye when they try to observe.
Evenson also manages to mock Psychology as a psuedo-science throughout his story. Dr. Rauch has a system of pure types and each person is a combination of these pure types. The problem is that "Rauch has declared the types infinitely expandable." Making his system incapable of making generalizations. The intern then analyzes himself according to "Eater of chowder type" and "giving the address type." The generalizations are so specific they would be functionally useless. Dr. Kagen's system is no better, analyzing posture to understand "the patient's basic conflict." The intern spends a considerable amount of time arranging his body into a posture that conveys mental health and stability.
Evenson uses words like "covert" "mystery" and "conspiratorial" which gives the reader a certain degree of paranoia. Paranoia and isolation are two characteristics of people with schizophrenia, and by the end of the story Evenson had me feeling a little crazy too.
The idea that the intern is actually a patient hinted at near the beginning when Dr. Rauch refers to the intern as "hardly the typical intern" and the other interns do not explain anything, they just shake their heads. Another indication is that in the intern is always in isolation, never living with anyone. The only mention of color in the story is when the intern describes his first room as "The walls are ill with dirt, cleaner white squares scattering them..." By the end of the story, the intern is definitely disturbed, projecting his motivations on to the person in the other room and plotting to stab the other in the eye when they try to observe.
Evenson also manages to mock Psychology as a psuedo-science throughout his story. Dr. Rauch has a system of pure types and each person is a combination of these pure types. The problem is that "Rauch has declared the types infinitely expandable." Making his system incapable of making generalizations. The intern then analyzes himself according to "Eater of chowder type" and "giving the address type." The generalizations are so specific they would be functionally useless. Dr. Kagen's system is no better, analyzing posture to understand "the patient's basic conflict." The intern spends a considerable amount of time arranging his body into a posture that conveys mental health and stability.
Evenson uses words like "covert" "mystery" and "conspiratorial" which gives the reader a certain degree of paranoia. Paranoia and isolation are two characteristics of people with schizophrenia, and by the end of the story Evenson had me feeling a little crazy too.
great.
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