I had an interesting chat with Mr. Taplinger, as he's called. I'd say he has a classic...

George: I had an interesting chat with Mr. Taplinger, as he's called. I'd say he has a classic neurotic personality disorder. Brilliant parents who didn't get along, closer to his aunt than his mother, obsessed with mortality, believes in nothing, finds life to have no meaning. Just a perfect depressive, with everything sublimated into his art, and he is quite an artist. He began as an escape artist. Interesting choice if anyone ever wanted to escape from reality. But, like Freud, he will not permit himself to be seduced by childish thoughts just because they're more comforting. Very unhappy man. I like him.