Lipton’s Journal/December 17, 1954/53

From Project Mailer

Perhaps the reason Susy[1] was so flat with Millie[2] is that she sensed how little soul Millie has, and Susy can never react nor open to a person with little soul. What I have neglected to say in all my writing about saints and psychopaths is that the psychopath has no soul, or rather has used all the energy and beauty of his soul to destroy the world with the tools of the world. Instead of being entire-detachment-of-soul from society, he is total-engagement-of-soul in society, so children turn away from him.



notes

  1. Susan Mailer, the only child of Mailer and his first wife Beatrice Silverman, and the oldest of his nine children, was born in Hollywood, August 28, 1949.
  2. A friend and distant cousin of Mailer’s, Millie Brower had the lead in his 1947 experimental film, Millie’s Dream.