The Poetry of Pathology

I come across a lot of personality inventories, IQ tests, and the like in my work, but today I found something called the Chicago Sustained Application Profile in a book of a social worker's case histories from 1933.

A study of the sustained-application profile in history showed constant interruption of her own thoughts, as if she did not quite understand what she was doing. It was to be noted especially that she was working most of the time, but it was not purposeful study. She spent a few minutes on the notes, another few minutes reading the book, and then a few minutes writing, then back to the notes.

This case might as well be labeled "Case No. 123: CheeseQuest," because as readers of this blog no doubt know, this pretty much describes my intellectual method. What struck me about the case study in this book were the diagrams of this girl's attention patterns. They're sort of like vertical frequency-wave graphs: they show two columns, "Distraction" and "Application," with a line that weaves back and forth between the two. When the subject crosses the line into Distraction, the graph notes her action. The names of these actions struck me as unintentional poetry (kind of like the "poetry" of Donald Rumsfeld back in the day). So I give you four poems of the Chicago Sustained Application Profile.

"History Class, Dec. 2"
Turns around
Erases
Looks at notes
Looks at notes
Erases
Looks at notes
Turns sheets of notes
Turns leaves of book
Picks up pocketbook
Puts head on her hands

"History Class, Dec. 8"
Looks on paper
Scratches head
Turns back her notes
Looks at clock
Looks up
Scratches head
Looks ahead
Fills the pen
Looks at guide sheet
Handles several books
Picks up another book

"Study Period, Dec. 1"
Smooths hair
Restless
Restless
Restless

"Study Period, Dec. 2"
Dreams
Rests
Idle