"Only Neurotics Will Survive The Future..."

"It is now obvious that only neurotics will survive the future. Only fragmented personalities will be able to withstand the fragmented world produced by our over-sophisticated technology. What we consider today as pathological thoughts and behaviours are actually evolutionary advances that allow people to cope with urban alienation and its barrage of movie/video icons, computerised surveillance systems and nuclear threats. In place of raw emotion and instinct, we are increasingly compelled to cultivate a repertoire of artificial responses, amending the noble savage with a neurasthenic itinerary that consists of obsession, introversion and paranoia."

- Joseph Lanz at RE/Search #8/9: J. G. Ballard (RE/Search Publications, 1984)