Norman Mailer to Undergo Test in Wife Stabbing
A wire-service report on the order for psychiatric testing, quoting both the diagnosis of "an acute paranoid breakdown" and Mailer's defiant insistence — "I insist I am sane."
“Norman Mailer to Undergo Test in Wife Stabbing.” New York Herald Post wire service article, 22 November 1960, 34.
Diagnosed by Dr. Conrad Rosenberg as having “an acute paranoid breakdown with delusional thinking,” Mailer challenged the report as “gratuitous and presumptuous”: “My pride is that as a sane man I can explore areas of experience that other men are afraid of.” He told the magistrate, “I insist I am sane.” The police reported finding a two-and-a-half-inch pocket knife on him at the time of arrest.
Related pages
- 1960 | Bellevue Hospital
- Norman Mailer Arrested Here in Stabbing of Wife at Party | Norman Mailer Sent to Bellevue