The Audience: Vent Those Urges!

It was 1957, and the learned Dr. H. Angus Bowes was presenting a learned paper before a meeting of the Eastern Psychiatric Research Association in Manhattan. The subject: "Psychopathology of the Hi-Fi Addict."

"Naturally," said Dr. Bowes, "the less organized will treat their hi-fi set rather like the emotionally immature treat a car—as an expression of aggression, as a power symbol. To many it has a sexual connotation. Perhaps in the twiddling of knobs there may be a masturbatory equivalent. Certainly the ability to take control of a situation relieves anxiety, and...

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