title: On Hallucination, Intuition, and the Becoming of "O"
author:  Eric Rhode 
description: A scholarly adventure in post-Kleinian psychoanalytic thinking from which emerges a strong influence from the work of Bion.
zlib_text: ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
  * * *
  
  
    
    
  The Philosopher's Joke
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com
  
  
  * * *
  
  # The Philosopher's Joke
  
  
  ### Jerome K. Jerome
  
  
  
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  Myself, I do not believe this story. Six persons are persuaded of its
  
  
  truth; and the hope of these six is to convince themselves it was an
  
  
  hallucination. Their difficulty is there are six of them. Each one
  
  
  alone perceives clearly that it never could have been. Unfortunately,
  
  
  they are close friends, and cannot get away from one another; and when
  
  
  they meet and look into each other's eyes the thing takes shape again.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The one who told it to me, and who immediately wished he had not, was
  
  
  Armitage. He told it to me one night when he and I were the only
  
  
  occupants of the Club smoking-room. His telling me--as he explained
  
  
  afterwards--was an impulse of the moment. Sense of the thing had been
  
  
  pressing upon him all that day with unus