What's mad? What's normal?
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"Do you think I could talk to my daughter?" asked the woman, who was not interested in the Japanese, the Indians, or the Canadians.
"Yes, yes, in a moment," said Dr. Igor, slightly annoyed by the interruption. "But first, I want you to understand one thing: apart from certain grave pathological cases, people only go insane when they try to escape from routine. Do you understand?"
"I do," she replied. "And if you think that I won't be capable of looking after her, you can rest assured, I've never tried to change my life."
"Good." Dr. Igor seemed relieved. "Can you imagine a world in which, for example, we were not obliged to repeat the same thing every day of our lives? If, for example, we all decided to eat only when we were hungry, what would housewives and restaurants do?"
It would be more normal to eat only when we were hungry, thought the woman, but she said nothing, afraid that he might not let her speak to Veronika.
"Well, it would cause tremendous confusion," she said at last. "I'm a housewife myself, and I know what I'm talking about."
"So we have breakfast, lunch, and supper. We have to wake up at a certain hour every day and rest once a week. Christmas exists so that we can give each other presents, Easter so that we can spend a few days at the lake. How would you like it if your husband were gripped by a sudden, passionate impulse and decided he wanted to make love in the living room?"
The woman thought: What is the man talking about? I came here to see my daughter.
"I would find it very sad," she said, carefully, hoping she was giving the right answer.
"Excellent," roared Dr. Igor. "The bedroom is the correct place for making love. To make love anywhere else would set a bad example and promote the spread of anarchy."
"Can I see my daughter?" said the woman.
Dr. Igor gave up. This peasant would never understand what he was talking about; she wasn't interested in discussing insanity from a philosophical point of view, even though she knew her daughter had made a serious suicide attempt and had been in a coma.
He rang the bell and his secretary appeared.
"Call the young woman who tried to commit suicide," he said. "The one who wrote the letter to the newspapers, saying that she was killing herself in order to put Slovenia on the map."
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