Chapter I :  INTRODUCTION

      The idea of writing a study of the Dr. Fitterman type of personality germinated in my mind for some time.  After I finished reading Haim Grade's Zemach Atlas, and conversant as I was with Dr. M.M. Fitterman's life history and especially his struggles to become a doctor, I made a bet that he must have studied at a Novaredok Yeshiva.  A Yeshiva is a Jewish seminary for men for the study of Talmud and other Jewish texts.  For the Orthodox, a Yeshiva takes the place of a secondary school and the University.  No degrees are granted (apart from the title of Rabbi).  Protracted studies are encouraged and studying in a Yeshiva is sometimes, though not usually, a lifetime occupation.  As it happened, I won the bet.

             Three books form the theoretical basis of the present study: David Shapiro, Neurotic Styles; Anna Freud, The Ego and its Mechanisms of Defence and R.D. Laing, The Divided Self.[1]

             In particular I drew upon the categories systematically treated by Shapiro.

             Another basis was provided by a short paper "The Functionality of Negativism of the Individual" that I had written several years earlier before approaching the current study. Several studies corroborate my thesis that functionality is not a prominent fact in the lives of individuals. A study by Arthur C. Bohart suggests that people hardly “adopt a task-focussed approach to therapy and life problems.”[2]

             It might be of interest to note that "Documentary Victory", a concept central to the Theoretical Nucleus, to the kernel of the personality, does not appear in the paper on Negativism under this caption, as I coined that term later. The concept of Documentary Victory was already hinted at; it was called “element of victory in failure.”

             I let the paper on Negativism stand as it is and included it as Chapter III.  This is an independent piece of research written with a different purpose in view, but it constitutes the baseline against which the Dr. Fitterman Syndrome is to be studied.

             Comprehension of Negativism is a sine qua non as far as the Dr. Fitterman Syndrome is concerned.  (It might be added parenthetically that the negativist — at core a non-conformist — has it in him to give society significant contributions.  The case of the Physics Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman who participated at Los Alamos in the race against time in developing the Bomb, can be cited.[3]

             A world of difference, however, divides the negativist from the Dr. Fitterman Syndrome Individual.  The Negativist can function as a highly successful personality (vide Richard Feynman) whereas the pure type Syndrome Individual cannot.

             From the methodological point of view, it was quite problematic to differentiate between general symptoms of the Syndrome and the characteristics of the man, Dr. M.M. Fitterman, but the line had to be drawn somewhere.

             I combined personal characteristics with theoretical considerations in the relevant chapter, as the two could not very well be wrenched apart.  The man, Dr. M.M. Fitterman, was indeed a pure type specimen of the Syndrome that results from the effective attempt at Killing Will.  He was also, as he told me with pride, the last surviving student of the Novaredok Yeshiva.[4] 

             The Theoretical Nucleus Chapter appears to form the kernel, the nucleus of the Doctor Fitterman Syndrome personality.

             The Dr. Fitterman Syndrome does not necessarily have to be the outcome of the same ideology or conditions to which Dr. Fitterman was subjected.  It can be the outcome of other causes, though there has to be some affinity with the original matrix.

             What about T.S. Eliot who was invited to attend the coronation of Elizabeth II, a most coveted event, but declined the honor? Wasn’t he marked by a streak of the Syndrome? His personal life was not successful.

             Franz Kafka is also to be counted a prominent member of the club.  He is a Doctor Fitterman Syndrome Individual and I have added a chapter to research his being trapped inside this vicious network. The dynamics of some additional examples will be presented in the body of the text. 


[1] David Shapiro, Neurotic Styles, New York: Basic Books, 1966; Anna Freud, The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence, London: Hogarth Press, 1968 [first published in German 1937; trans. Cecile Baines]; R.D. Laing, The Divided Self: A Study of Sanity and Madness, London: Tavistock Publications, 1960.

[2] Arthur C. Bohart, “Focusing on the Positive, Focusing on the Negative: Implications for Psychotherapy,” Journal of Clinical Psychology, Vol. 58(9), 2002, p. 1037.  

[3] See Richard P. Feynman, “Surely You Are Joking Mr. Feynman!”, New York: W.W. Norton, 1985.

[4]  While he said that, it was not yet true.  I pointed out to him that Professor Shraga Abramson shares this title with him, but eventually it became true as Professor Abramson died close to one year before Dr. Fitterman.