Adaptation to Life. George E. Vaillant. 1977.

Every person is given a unique set of challenges in life. To overcome them, a person employs a unique set of techniques. Most people, it seems, try to do the best they can within their circumstances. That being said, I'm sure all of us have at times wondered about those people whose successes exceed our own, and developed theories about how they accomplished what they did.

Maybe these people were born with natural traits far exceeding our own. Maybe they were not held back as we were by some obstacle or environmental shortcoming. Maybe they received help from their social or family environment we were not privileged to. Or maybe they simply mustered the will that we cannot.

Adaptation to Life is based on a longitudinal study of hundreds of men who entered Harvard in the 1940s. These volunteers were tracked over the courses of their lives and submitted exhaustive data about their careers, relationships and emotional states. The originators of this research (known as the Grant Study) felt that psychological data at the time focused too much on physical disease and that a more comprehensive data set would be needed to determine what constituted wellness. The author, George Vaillant, is primarily focused on what traits lead to or prevented success and happiness in lives of the test subjects.

The identities of the participants are kept confidential with the exception of John F. Kennedy. Even knowing he was one of the subjects of the data, however, does not reveal anything about him or any other subject specifically. The author's descriptions of the lives of these men are relayed via fictionalized characters that we are told best represent categories within the volunteers.

A great deal of Vaillant's analysis is based on the Freudian concept of defense mechanisms. In short, a defense mechanism is an unconscious impulse that protects the ego from anxiety caused by conflict between opposing id impulses or between the id and the super ego.

For example, one of the characters in the book is an avid outdoorsman. His relationships with family and friends are virtually nonexistent, but he seems consciously unaware of this fact. When asked if he is close with his sister, he says something to the effect "oh yes we are very close. She just had a child, but I don't know the name." The energy involved in mastering wilderness survival while ignoring his natural desires to develop human bonds is displacement. His unconscious mind replaces struggles he cannot bear with struggles he can.

Vaillant catalogs and defines dozens of defense mechanisms, and then makes a further argument that they can be placed on a linear scale from immature to mature. The most immature defense mechanisms are pathological and lead to criminal or otherwise socially unacceptable behavior. The most mature defense mechanisms balance competing id impulses and the demands of the superego, but they also produce positive side effects. 

This is Vaillant's scale of defense mechanisms from Adaptation to Life. He of course offers long, clinical definitions for each category. The quotes shown below are mine.

Level I - Psychotic Mechanisms (common in psychosis, dreams, and childhood) 

Denial - "I know I don't have a job, but there's plenty of food in the fridge."
Distortion - "I haven't worked in years, but I could get work anytime I wanted, wherever I tried."
Delusional Projection - "I try to find work, but everywhere I go to apply they all hate me." 

Level II - Immature Mechanisms (common in severe depression, personality disorders, and adolescence)

Fantasy - "I know I don't talk to the people I work with often, but they like me and respect my work."
Projection - "This new policy management is making us follow is stupid, I can tell everybody feels the same way."
Hypochondriasis - "Work has been so tough lately, and now on top of that I have this weird rash. I think I'll have to take some time off."
Passive-Aggressive Behavior - "This assignment my boss gave me is impossible. I'm going to have to stay all night working on it and I know I can't ask for help or she will think I'm an idiot."
Acting Out - "My job sucks, that's why I wake up every morning and get high." 

Level III - Neurotic Mechanisms (common in everyone)

Intellectualization - "This business plan isn't quite where it needs to be. I will start working on it as soon as I get the margins and the font exactly right."
Repression - "My team tells me this issue flares up in Bob's department once a month, but I never remember them raising it to me in the past."
Reaction Formation - "I LOVE doing this report. Sure there are issues every week I have to solve, but that just gives me a reason to talk to my team about concepts we don't have time to fully train."
Displacement - "That hole in the wall is from last week when I was talking to my boss and the call dropped. God I hate my phone."
Dissociation - "I don't remember much about the Christmas party, but everybody told me I spent the whole time with Bob and the rest of the jerks in his department talking about how much I loved them." 

Level IV - Mature Mechanisms (common in "healthy" adults)

Sublimation - "Bob can be so hard to work with sometimes. It was fun to kick his ass at tennis last weekend."
Altruism - "We have a huge problem in that department. Sometimes I go to their building, find 3-4 people to work with and I stay with them all day and help. It's a drop in the bucket, but it reminds me that there is hope."
Suppression - "It was hard to hear that feedback from my boss. I could drop everything and spend a day fixing all the problems that she raised. Of course, that might cause new problems. I've blocked out some time this week to address what she brought up."
Anticipation - "I knew the meeting would be tough, so I spent time thinking about the hardest possible questions that might have come up so I'd be ready."
Humor - "This company is a giant shit storm and all of these problems seem hopeless. Do you guys know if the Post Office is hiring?" 

It is probably obvious from how I've attempted to define each mechanism that I saw much of my own life in these techniques. So much of my personality seems to be built by a combination of these mechanisms. More to the point, it has been several months since I read the book, and now I can't help but see the behavior of so many others through this prism. 

Human beings are not completely rational beings. We have the capacity for rationality, but so much of what we do is guided by other motivations. We are driven by our emotions, but also by our subconscious mind. The subconscious mind could be much better at getting us what we want, emotionally, but it seems to be completely irrational. It will spend a whole life hiding a problem that, fully exposed, would take an afternoon to solve.

What emerges from this book, then, is a startling definition of identity. On one hand, the book is filled with talented, brilliant, wealthy individuals who are adept at making themselves miserable. More to the point, many of them seem to have no conscious awareness of their misery. Their principle obstacle is their own psyche. Many of the most pronounced personality traits these individuals exhibit, the things that make them who they are, seem to be elaborate tricks designed to shield them from having to confront elementary challenges.

The other side of that coin is, of course, those who clearly succeeded in their lives. These people are defined primarily not be idiosyncrasies but by generous helpings of mature defense mechanisms. These traits imbue their owners not with personality, but with a knack for openness. These people don't exert themselves on others, they accept and represent others. Their identity seems to diminish with their maturity. They are less themselves than they are a reflection of their environment. They are, in a word, an adaptation.

East of Eden. John Steinbeck. 1952.

A good story connects the audience with the lives of its characters. It provides enough detail to create a believable reality and enough meaning to compel the audience to imagine themselves in the characters' shoes. 

The best stories persist in our culture because the details that matter are timeless, making the conditions of life that change over time less important. On a timescale, the oldest stories are the simplest. Old stories are archetypal. They serve as the foundation of our understanding about ourselves and our relationship with each other and the natural world. More recent stories tend to be the most detailed on the surface. They have settings and challenges that the audience can relate to. Unlike older stories, they haven't eroded after years of being retold. But, because they have not yet been time-tested, it is possible that their allure is simply a consequence of the similarities of their surface details, as opposed to depth and meaning. 

East of Eden is a novel that links very old stories to a more recent story. It is essentially a retelling of Cain and Abel, set in early America. In this way it adds incredible detail to the biblical fable, while adding deep meaning to the condition of American life. The novel is beautiful, sad and profoundly true.

The story revolves around two sets of brothers, primarily in the Salinas Valley around the beginning of the 20th century. The first set of brothers, Adam and Charles, are the sons of Civil War Private Cyrus Trask. Cyrus, due more to his story telling abilities than his experience in war, becomes an important figure in the US military. Both sons hold him in great esteem. It is due to this esteem that his apparent favor towards Adam causes the younger brother Charles to resent and in one case nearly kill his sibling.

The second set of brothers are the twins Cal and Aron. It is never clear who fathers them, Adam or Charles, but they move with Adam to the Salinas Valley which is where the bulk of the story is told. The two brothers have a relationship similar to that of their father and uncle. Aron is likable, strong, popular and favored by his father. Cal is darker, complex, and in several situations not favored by his father.

Unlike Charles, however, Cal does not approach his resentment toward his brother with outward violence. He is more calculating, learning at an early age how to play his brother against others. He subtly teases and mocks the affection people automatically show Aron, finding ways to create situations where both his brother and the people who favor him feel rejected and hurt.

Both sets of brothers are allusions to Cain and Abel, a story so old that it has been worn down to 16 verses in the King James Bible (consolidated into paragraphs for space). Steinbeck makes an argument about the real meaning of this story that is described in the link below ("thou shalt"). Technically, this link gives away a critical theme of the novel, but even if you intend on reading the novel and don't want any spoilers, I encourage you to read it.

And Adam knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is they countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel they brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?

And he said, What has thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.

And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from they face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.

And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

In an effort to help articulate what makes East of Eden such a wonderful novel, consider these elements of the Cain and Abel story:

• Cain, the unfavored brother, is apparently the father of the entire human race. We are all marked with the curse of his crime.
• This mark is not a part of Cain's punishment. Cain's punishment is being ejected from paradise. The mark is for Cain's protection, an act of mercy shown by God to ease his punishment.
• Abel was favored by God, but this does not mean Cain was necessarily rejected or inherently evil. Cain acted not out of malice, but out of love for God. A love that he felt was not returned.

As you can see, there is so much more to this fable than just what is on the surface. It is not simply about good versus evil. Using the two sets of brothers in East of Eden as instruments, Steinbeck creates a symphony of allusions to Cain and Abel. Cain's struggle repeats itself in multiple generations of Trasks in Salinas Valley and reverberates into the rest of the characters.

This topic, however, is just the foundation of Steinbeck's study in the human condition. The book is filled with poignant explorations into traits and truths we all share. A quick example:

In human affairs of danger and delicacy successful conclusion is sharply limited by hurry. So often men trip by being in a rush. If one were properly to perform a difficult and subtle act, he should first inspect the end to be achieved and then, once he had accepted the end as desirable, he should forget it completely and concentrate solely on the means. By this method he would not be moved to false action by anxiety or hurry or fear. Very few people learn this.

At times in the novel, whole paragraphs diverge from the story being told to plumb the depths of the people involved.

East of Eden connects a description of human life at the dawn of our nation to an outline of human nature at the dawn of our species (literally or figuratively depending on your beliefs). In doing so, it connects American life to a view of human life, in all its beauty, cruelty and depth. In this way it becomes less of a story than a meta-story, a story about the foundational stories of our culture. 

There is so much to this book, so much more than I can express here. In convincing you to read it, I will leave you with this closing argument. Steinbeck is one of the great American authors, and he considered this novel his best work.

When he finished East of Eden, Steinbeck placed his 250,000 word manuscript into a mahogany box he had carved and sent it to his friend Pascal (Pat) Covici. The note he placed on top became the dedication page of the novel.

Dear Pat,
You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and you said, "Why don't you make something for me?"
I asked you what you wanted, and you said, "A box."
"What for?"
"To put things in."
"What things?"
"Whatever you have," you said.
Well, here's your box. Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts - the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation.
And of top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you.
And still the box is not full.

After reading this novel, I don't think there is a better way to describe it. East of Eden is a box, and nearly everything is in it.