"It has no official name yet," I told him. "To keep within the law, we have been calling it psychotherapy. If we called it something else, and admitted that it _isn't_ psychotherapy, the courts couldn't turn the zanies over to us. But you're right--it is as impossible to produce the effect by psychotherapy as it is to produce an atomic explosion by a chemical reaction. "I've got a hunch that, just as chemistry and nucleonics are both really branches of physics, so psychotherapy and Brownlee's process are branches of some higher, more inclusive science--but that doesn't have a name, either." "That's as may be," the Duke said, "but I'm happy to know that you're not deluding yourself that it's any kind of psychotherapy." "You know," I said, "I kind of like your word _geas_. Because that's exactly what it seems to be--a _geas_. A hex, an enchantment, if you wish. "Did you know that Brownlee was an anthropologist before he turned to psychology? He has some very interesting stories to tell about hexes and so on." "I'll have to hear them one day." His Grace took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. "Cigarette?" "No, thanks. I gave up smoking a few years back." * * * * * He puffed his alight. "This _geas_," he said, "reminds me of the fact that, before the medical profession came up with antibiotics that would destroy the microorganisms that cause gas gangrene, amputation was the only method of preventing the death of the patient. It was crippling, but necessary." "_No!_" My voice must have been a little too sharp, because he raised one eyebrow. "The analogy," I went on in a quieter tone, "isn't good because it gives a distorted picture. Look, Your Grace, you know what's done to keep a captive wild duck from flying away?" "One wing is clipped." "Right. Certain of the feathers are trimmed, which throws the duck off balance every time he tries to fly. He's crippled, right? But if you clip the _other_ wing, what happens? He's in balance again. He can't fly as _well_ as he could before his wings were clipped--but he _can_ fly! "That's what Brownlee's _geas_ does--restore the balance by clipping the other wing." His Grace smiled. There was an odd sort of twinkle in his eyes. "Let me carry your analogy somewhat farther. If the one wing is too severely clipped, clipping the other won't help. Our duck wouldn't have enough lift to get off the ground, even if he's balanced. "Now, a zany who was that badly crippled--?" I grinned back at him. "Right. It would be so obvious that he would have been put away very quickly. He would not be just psychopathic, but completely psychotic--and demonstrably so." "Then," the Duke said, still pursuing the same track, "the only way to 'cure' that kind would be to find a method to ... ah ... 'grow the feathers back', wouldn't it? And where does that put today's psychotherapy? Providing, of course, that the analogy follows."