Lipton’s Journal/Editors’ Note: Difference between revisions

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{{byline|last=Lennon|first=J. Michael|last1=Mailer|first1=Susan}}
{{byline|last=Lennon|first=J. Michael|last1=Mailer|first1=Susan}}


Mailer began this journal on December 1, 1954, two months before his 32nd birthday. His intention was to record the effects of marijuana, which he had been smoking regularly for a few years, on the other activities of his life at the time—writing and his literary ambitions, sex, jazz, and his interactions with his colleagues at ''Dissent'' magazine, the leftist journal edited by Irving Howe, and with friends and family. One of the most important figures in his life at the time was Dr. Robert Lindner, a well-known psychiatrist and author of popular psychology books, including ''Must You Conform'' and ''Rebel without a Cause''. Rinehart published the work of both men, and they had corresponded since the fall of 1952. After Mailer had completed a series of entries (he numbered them 1–689), perhaps ten pages worth, he would mail a carbon copy to Lindner, who then responded in letters, telephone calls and meetings in New York or Baltimore, where Lindner and his wife Johnnie lived.
{{dc|dc=M|ailer began this journal on December 1, 1954,}} two months before his 32nd birthday. His intention was to record the effects of marijuana, which he had been smoking regularly for a few years, on the other activities of his life at the time—writing and his literary ambitions, sex, jazz, and his interactions with his colleagues at ''Dissent'' magazine, the leftist journal edited by Irving Howe, and with friends and family. One of the most important figures in his life at the time was Dr. Robert Lindner, a well-known psychiatrist and author of popular psychology books, including ''Must You Conform'' and ''Rebel without a Cause''. Rinehart published the work of both men, and they had corresponded since the fall of 1952. After Mailer had completed a series of entries (he numbered them 1–689), perhaps ten pages worth, he would mail a carbon copy to Lindner, who then responded in letters, telephone calls and meetings in New York or Baltimore, where Lindner and his wife Johnnie lived.


Mailer asked Lindner to analyze him, but Lindner said it would destroy their warm and supportive friendship. Mailer then decided to use the journal to self-analyze himself, although Lindner’s running commentary made their relationship as close as the traditional one between analyst and analysand. Mailer quotes Lindner for the length of the journal, arguing with, joshing, provoking and confiding with the older man—Lindner was about nine years older than Mailer. Lindner was Mailer’s closest male friend (James Jones was a close second), and during this period they were in regular communication. He likened their intellectual relationship to an imaginary one between Marx (the outer world of politics, society realism and economics), and Freud (the inner world of dreams, the unconscious, narcissism and repression), but was not willing to say which roles he and Lindner played.
Mailer asked Lindner to analyze him, but Lindner said it would destroy their warm and supportive friendship. Mailer then decided to use the journal to self-analyze himself, although Lindner’s running commentary made their relationship as close as the traditional one between analyst and analysand. Mailer quotes Lindner for the length of the journal, arguing with, joshing, provoking and confiding with the older man—Lindner was about nine years older than Mailer. Lindner was Mailer’s closest male friend (James Jones was a close second), and during this period they were in regular communication. He likened their intellectual relationship to an imaginary one between Marx (the outer world of politics, society realism and economics), and Freud (the inner world of dreams, the unconscious, narcissism and repression), but was not willing to say which roles he and Lindner played.