>>24582672 (OP)
About halfway through Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, it seems obvious to me that DFW had some kind of anxiety disorder. The constant imagining what other people are thinking and believing, mostly consisting of whatever happens to justify the imaginer's stressful state. It's brutal, seeing that over and over in chapter after chapter. Not just the depressed woman or the hypothetical about the divorced man, the book in particular goes to show the reader how he really perceived the world.
DFW was the kind of man that put himself in the mind of anyone who was speaking to him, so he was therefore always speaking to himself, and getting the reactions he had always expected. A flaw in his ability to communicate providing a perfect spiral of judgment and misery, which was perfect, as judgement and misery was probably exactly what he'd expected. Sad stuff.
