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Under the surface
By Alina Dulu, April 2001, Paris
Two persons are having a conversation in the
street. Judging by their appearance they seem ordinary people. Nothing can
distinguish them from the other passersby. Nothing is special in the way they
are dressed, in the manner they are gesticulating, smiling, frowning, relating
to each other. Their shown-off politeness, courtesy and apparently mutual
respect and appreciation look common. The way they try to reveal their inner
person to the word seems conventional even in great details.
Suddenly one of them became agitated. He is
moving more rapidly and his movements look as trying to liberate him from
something distressing that has seized him out of the blue. The words sound
unarticulated. The tone of his voice turns into something unnatural and
frequently reaches extreme frequencies. Now his voice is not human, but a deep
yells for help out of despair. His face is now like an African mask. His body
twists awry as dancing on a violent, precipitated music. His arms are
indicating different directions, now in west then they look confused and turn
towards the east, but only for a few seconds just to pause lifeless along the
tired body. Now it is obvious that something is out of the norm, moreover
evidently wrong. More unusual is his partner ‘s lack of reaction. He remains
unchanged despite of the scene of great discomfort he is faced with. It looks
like two persons from two different scenes are artificially adjoined in one
frame. Trying to go under the surface one can interpret this odd display as
brought by two persons profoundly marked by their inner thoughts and ideas,
living their own fantasies in their unique isolated lives.
In spite of the discrepancies in their
appearance this two persons talk together, their voices alternate in a flowing
conversation, one’s words come over and take possession of the other one’s
words in a constructive, logical communication. If they are able to communicate
by means of the language and thoughts why then can’t they communicate by
feeling and affect?
For me the solution to this enigma was to
presume one of these persons has a problem. Actually it is possible for both of
them to be in trouble but this alternative is less probable if one consider
statistics a functional useful tool in predicting human behavior. There could
be found many explanations for this curious inter human interaction but for me
the intriguing enigma was not the problem in itself, but who, from the two
persons, actually has one?
It could happen to
be something threatening that endangers one’s life and his physical or
psychical integrity. Could a normal person start yelling and acting wild in a
civilized society? Maybe if he is in real trouble the animal instinct of
self-protection could go over the education and seize the person totally. This
could be accepted as reasonable. Could a normal person behave in normal
undisturbed manner dealing with a desperate person? Maybe if the other one is
crazy, but even in that situation one could not remain cool and cold facing the
suffering. Making a long story short, at first glance I was revolted by the
uncivilized and brutal behaviour of the disturbed person. I was very critical
and ready to say that person is the neurotic one. Thinking for a while all the
picture enlightened and it was clear that the cool, not reactive, insensible
person was the one who in reality has the problem and the abnormal wild
reaction could be interpreted as normal revolt in the face of neglect,
egocentrism and lack of feelings.