Kirk Allen
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Kirk Allen (born c. 1918) was the alias given to an anonymized patient of psychoanalyst-author Robert M. Lindner in the last section of the latter's The Fifty-Minute Hour, entitled "The Jet-Propelled Couch". Following the publication of Brian Aldiss' Billion Year Spree, a history of science fiction, some speculation has ensued as to the true identity of "Allen". "Allen" had developed an elaborate worldbuilding project connected to a work by another, unnamed professional fiction writer.
Lindner and "Allen" met in Baltimore. The latter, born in Paris, had grown up in Hawaii. He enjoyed reading the Oz book series and had a sexual experience with his governess, "Miss Lillian" at age 11, when she began to seduce him, leading to a sexual relationship. He also difficulty reconciling himself, as an outsider, with both white culture and the Hawaiian culture. He retreated into a world of books.
In his teens, Allen found two separate works by different writers in which the a character had the same name as him. He then found "a long series of fantasies" by an American writer, the protagonist of which also had the name "Kirk Allen". This had occurred by age 14. At this or a later point, Allen began to think of them of the books as his own "biography". At 19, Allen attended university, and became a nuclear physicist working with the United States military on a classified research project during World War II, which helped to bring about the war's end.[1]
Allen was thorough, and created full-color maps, sketches, a glossary of names and terms, socio-economic data, and more, all related to the "galactic system" (to use Lindner's term) in which Allen imagined his "real" self as living.[2] In his words, as reported by Lindner:
My first effort, then, was to remember. I started by fixing in my mind, and later on paper in the forms of maps, genealogical tables, and so on, what the author of my biography had put down. When I had this mastered, by remembering I was able to correct his errors, fill in many details, and close gaps between one volume of the biography and the next.[1]
He began to hallucinate being in the various settings of his stories, physically experiencing them.[1] Soon, his employers became aware of his psychotic condition and demanded that he get psychiatric treatment. Reluctantly, he conceded.[2] Lindner cured Allen by immersing himself in the fantasy world, but in the process became himself obsessed.[2]
