The Psychiatrist's Dilemma

A visit to Mr. T. S. Eliot's Cocktail Party at the New Theatre or in the pages of the book,* m some ways resembles a visit to any other cocktail party. One finds in .it what one is Prepared to find; one is a little uneasy at the nonsense that goes on at the beginning; one slowly succumbs to the spirit of the thing and comes away acknowledging that it was very much worth while, but not quite knowing in what respects. The difference is that in this case the after-effects are stimulating and the Play is well worth thinking about afterwards. In the days of Health Service psychiatry, when consultants have waiting lists eight weeks long and can give but few of their patients more than a twenty-minute session, the spectacle of ?ne of their number visiting a cocktail party Uninvited in order to deal with the breaking Carriage of one of his patients strikes one as somewhat unreal. So does his interest in a society girl whose first love-affair (with a married man) leaves her feeling unfulfilled?an interest so intense that he treats her in his private nursing home free of charge. Mr. Eliot's psychiatrist is odd in other ways. Theatrical in manner, pithy and paradoxical? almost Shavian?in dialogue, mysterious as a variety-show conjurer, claiming supersensory Powers in diagnosis and staging consulting-room denouements, this central figure smacks of the magazine and the party-conversation attitude to Psychiatry. While apparently at the top of his Profession, he nevertheless employs the services ?f two dubious assistants to spy upon his Patients as they swim about in the social goldfish howl of those we used to know as the idle rich. One is a meddlesome old socialite to be Seen at any hunt ball in a glossy periodical, the other an ambiguous cosmopolitan man-aboutt?Wn who seems to be adept at every activity e*cept earning a livelihood in any useful way. Nevertheless the play raises fundamental issues and should be regarded primarily as a work of art. Perhaps it would be better without the tricks and absurdities, but fewer people would see it.