[This type of mentality] has learned to speak, but has never grasped the
process of conceptualization. Concepts, to him, are merely some sort of code
signals employed by other people for some inexplicable reason, signals that
have no relation to reality or to himself. He treats concepts as if they were
percepts, and their meaning changes with any change of circumstances. Whatever
he learns or happens to retain is treated, in his mind, as if it had always
been there, as if it were an item of direct awareness, with no memory of how he
acquired it—as a random store of unprocessed material that comes and goes at
the mercy of chance . . . He does not seek knowledge—he “exposes himself” to
“experience,” hoping, in effect, that it will push something into his mind; if
nothing happens, he feels with self-righteous rancor that there is nothing he
can do about it. Mental action, i.e., mental effort—any sort of processing,
identifying, organizing, integrating, critical evaluation or control of his
mental content—is an alien realm.