Page:Fantastic Volume 08 Number 01.djvu/27

 "Well, it's true. This is a big house, Steve. Big, and soundproofed. You've never been on the soundproofed side, have you? And I've no intention of taking you there now. You wouldn’t want to meet the screaming people."

"Screaming people?"

Wagram shrugged. "Not a very flattering description, but a most accurate one. You see, that is the chief source of my livelihood here—the screaming people. The so-called incurables, the hopelessly psychotic. I've specialized in their care since I came here to the Coast after the war. I've deliberately taken on the cases which were given up as hopeless; the men and women whose only remaining alternatives are confinement in a public or a private institution for life. To be utterly blunt, they are given a choice including a private institution like this only if they or their families have a great deal of money. I need a great deal of money in order to advance my own therapeutic techniques, and I've had no compunctions about obtaining it from them. Because, in return, I've been able to stop the screaming."

"You've cured the incurables?"

Dr. Wagram shrugged again. "Remember what the doctors decided in your case? You were to die. But neurosurgery—"

"Yes," I admitted. "Neurosurgery. You saved me. But with physical techniques, here in your own operating-room. What can you do for the psychotics?"

"I can do what all the others do," Wagram answered. "I can give them what you're asking me to give you, now. Free association, depth-analysis, narcohypnotic sessions. But these people are beyond the scope of such treatment. Their only hope lies in drastic therapy—new techniques. I have evolved many. The womb, here, is one. Another is my sadomasochistic ampitheatre, where acts of violent aggression can be carried out upon the persons of lifelike, even partially animated mannikins. Sexual repressions can be similarly discharged—but I've no intention of giving a lecture.

"It is enough for me to say that in most instances, something even more extreme is required.

"Here, let me put it this way. I will simplify, even oversimplify. The source of aberration lies in the past. The past lies in the memory-banks. Eliminate the mem- THE SCREAMING PEOPLE