The Psychoanalysis of Fire - G.B.

Modern psychiatry has made clear the psychology of the pyromaniac. It has shown the sexual nature of his tendencies. On the other hand it has brought to light the serious traumatism that a psyche can suffer from the spectacle of a roof or haystack that has been set on fire, from the sight of the great blaze of fire shining against the night sky and extending out over the broad expanse of the ploughed fields. Almost always a case of incendiarism in the country is the sign of the diseased mind of some shepherd. Like bearers of sinister torches, these men of low degree transmit from age to age the contagion of their lonely dreams. The sight of a fire will cause some men to become a pyromaniac almost inevitably as a pyromaniac will some day start a fire. - Fire and Reverie, Gaston Bachelard, 1938