Beyond Belief [antikvár]

"But how can a self-respecting writer like you be spending over a year writing a book about such a ghastly case?" I have often been asked the question, mostly by women ("I wasn't able to read the details of it in the paper, never mind a book!"). And now that Beyond Belief is published, I have no doubt I shall hear the question oftener. My answer is a simple one. For me, just as no physical aberration can ever be too extraordinary to interest the medical scientist, so no psychological phenomena can be forbidden to the serious and dispassionate writer, however "unsavory" the details. Who expects savor from a story of noisome evil? When a shocking scandal blows up, with all the attendant sensationalism, there is in some people an instinct to avert the head and shovel the whole thing under the carpet ("I don't want to know"). But some of us do want to know, and it is salutary to inquire: the proper study of mankind is man. And man cannot be ignored because he has become vile. Woman neither. And when the phenomena have developed, over years, in two ( vii )