Allen Wheelis (1915-2007) had a long career as a psychotherapist. After the requisite training and a stint as a medical officer during World War II, he moved to San Francisco in 1954 and set up a private practice which continued until his death. He wrote more than a dozen books, including four novels, which focused on psychological issues.
The Seeker by Allen Wheelis. Random House (1960), 242 pp.
Oliver, a successful psychoanalyst at the Harrington Foundation in Vermont, is growing increasingly dissatisfied with his life. He has lost interest in his research, which his colleagues consider ground-breaking, and is coming to believe that psychoanalysis itself is either hoax or delusion. He finds no joy in his sexual relationships, neither with wife Aggie or lover Sonya Hartman. Oliver resists the idea, broached by his supervisor and mentor, Stanley Nichols, that his search for meaning should be directed inward through therapy rather than outward through changes in attitudes and behavior. He soon decides that his quest should be made in California.
In the remaining two chapters, “The Narcissist” and “The Sojourner,” Oliver ponders important questions. Can meaning be found in existing ideologies? Is selfishness a satisfactory response to a purposeless life? Is contributing to the advancement of society merely a source of ego gratification? And so on. Readers may find that Wheelis spends too much time exploring big issues and not enough humanizing his characters. As a result the book may sometimes be a tough slog. But it is a novel after all. So the thoughts of the first-person narrator (as all psychotherapists will avow) do not provide the ultimate explanation of his behavior. Oliver, for example, never takes any responsibility for what happens to his wife. It remains an open question whether the book, which Wheelis based to some extent on his own life, offers a tale of spiritual inquiry, rationalization, or perhaps even deception. In any case, readers with an interest in psychology may get caught up in the book.