4pQonT

EZRA POUND 259
the part of the psychiatrists. The following excerpts contain the
gist of their statements concerning Pound's mental condition:
Dr. Wendell Muncie testifying—
"Q. Will you state what symptoms you found in Mr. Pound?
"A. There are a number of things which attracted my attention
in examining Mr. Pound, and these are essentially the items that
appeared to me:
"He has a number of rather fixed ideas which are either delusional
or verging on the delusional. One I might speak of, for instance,
he has been designated to save the Constitution of the
United States, for the people of the United States.
"Secondly, he has a feeling that he has the key to the peace of
the world through the writings of Confucius, which he translated
into Italian and English, and that if these had been given proper
circulation the Axis would not have been formed, we would be at
peace now, and a great deal of trouble could have been avoided in
the past, and this becomes his blueprint for world order in the
future.
"Third, he believes that with himself as a leader, a group of intellectuals
could have gotten together in different countries, like
Japan, for instance, where he is well thought of, to work for world
order. He has a hatred of bureaucracy which goes back a long way,
and one may conclude that his saving of the Constitution draws a
clear distinction between the rights of the people and those who
govern the people . . . In addition to that, he shows a remarkable
grandiosity. He feels that he has no peer in the intellectual
field, although conceding that one or two persons he has assisted
might, on occasion, do as good work as he did.
"Q. Did you at any time ascertain whether he understood the
nature of the offence?
"A. Whether he understands the meaning of treason, or not, I
do not know. He categorically denies that he committed anything
like treason, in his mind, against the people of the United States.
"Q. Were you able to discover whether any other mental difficulties
had occurred in his previous life?
"A. Well, all we know is from the record that he went through
an unusual mental experience in a concentration camp in Italy,