The autobiography of a marginal psychologist
as much as I like bob
pp. 179-210
in: Leendert Mos (ed), History of psychology in autobiography, Berlin, Springer, 2009Abstract
I know that that's an unusual way of introducing myself since I have not changed my name. I was born Robert Rieber and as Robert Rieber I will die. But we can have other names, too, that we adopt because of the personal meaning that inheres in them. In my case the name comes from a famous short story by Somerset Maugham entitled Mr. Know-It-All. The story takes place on an ocean liner making its way from San Francisco to Yokohama (through Eaden on the gulf coast) in the 1920s. Because of shortage of accommodations, the unnamed narrator of the story is obliged to share a cabin with a man named Max Kelada, the Mr. Know-It-All of the title. The narrator makes no secret of his disdain for his roommate who, we learn, is "dark-skinned, with a fleshy hooked nose." Max seems to know about everything under the sun.