Some poor, unattractive young man may likewise decide never to marry unless he may secure as his bride a woman whom her social position makes unattainable. Here again, unions of heiresses with menials supply the rationalisation.
Some unattractive women may make such financial demands on the man seeking their affection that no one will have the courage to tempt them away from their single-blessedness.
Lovers of the Absolute. There are individuals of a much more pathological type still, who refuse to recognise and accept the relativity of all things human, who seek absolute beauty, perfection, intelligence, understanding, sympathy in their future mate and who grow discouraged and depressed when they unavoidably discover flaws in every companion of the opposite sex.
In certain cases that obsession of the perfect detail is a symptom of insanity.
Cartoonists have often amused themselves and us by representing famous men and women with their features so distorted that their distant likeness to some animal is emphasized.
I have observed the same distortion in neurotics to whom that delusion brought no humorous enjoyment but on the contrary deep suffering.
A Troublesome Patient. One of my patients a handsome young man of twenty-six, had had very ephemeral affairs with several women and left them abruptly when he suddenly discovered in their features a likeness to certain animals, pigs, dogs, monkeys, etc. After which he could never be prevailed upon to see them again.
One morning he called on me, announcing coolly that he had decided to shoot me. I invited him to sit down and discuss his plans more fully before carrying them out, and also to mention some of his reasons for that somewhat radical decision.
He explained to me, with his right hand annoyingly buried in his coat pocket, that he had been in love for a few weeks, with a very attractive girl. Recently, he had noticed something in her profile which distantly resembled a pig's snout. The night before, while he was in her company, he suddenly saw her head transformed into a pig's head. He fled from her rooms in terror and disgust and, attributing his "clear insight into her true nature" to my psychoanalytic teachings, had decided to save others from my baneful influence by killing me.
As is usually the case with maniacs, a quiet conversation cast doubts in his mind. I told him that I did not approve of his plans which might, however, be excellent, but that, as I was really a biased adviser in that matter, he should discuss them with an impartial third party. He then decided to call on Dr. Everett Dean Martin who advised him to take a rest cure and escorted him to Bellevue Hospital.