An Analysis of Superficial Boredom and Its Relation to the Boring Object Heidegger does not begin his analysis of superficial boredom with boredom itself but with what is boring, or the boringness of a boring object.

Particularly interesting and revealing was the behavior of the patient, when he was given a color-specimen (e.g., a red one) and was requested to sort out all those specimina as agreed with the former in hue, though they might differ as to brightness, warmth, etc.¹² Th. proceeded with much uneasiness and hesitation. Sometimes he tried to assort specimina of equal or very similar hue, sometimes specimina of different hue which, however, agreed as to brightness. It goes without saying that Th. sometimes grouped specimina agreeing in hue. Whether or not two color-specimina appear to him as fitting together depends entirely and exclusively upon whether or not he has the experience of concrete agreement, accordance, and coherence (“konkretes Kohärenzerlebnis”) on account of the particular characteristic individual aspects which the specimina present to him. In the case of identical specimina, the patient obviously experiences concrete agreement to the highest possible degree; hence he is prompt and unhesitating in assorting such specimina. To assort color-specimina with reference to a principle of classification requires adoption of the “categorial” attitude, whether the principle of classification is adhered to consistently, i.e., for a certain length of time or is adopted for a brief moment only. It is obviously with respect to only very few specimina that the mentioned experience takes place, whereas other specimina of the same hue, but of brightness, saturation, and other chromatic properties different from those of the object in question appear inappropriate and incongruous. It is more or less under this phenomenal aspect that Gelb and Goldstein presume the heap of color-specimina to appear to their patient. When, however, under the influence of a given assignment, e.g., that to assort all red specimina, the normal person abandons his heretofore passive attitude, the instability and agitation of the heap of color-specimina, the vacillation of conflicting […]

If he is sometimes elliptical and obscure, it is because he has so much to tell us.

Although many patients require ventricular drainage, the technique of ventriculolumbar perfusion is not without hazard and therefore little used (Rubin et al., 1966; Cutler et al., 1968c, 1970b).