it,” and has no love of enthusiastic get-togethers. He is not a good mixer. 

The introvert sees everything that is in any way valuable to him in the subject; the extravert sees it in the object. This dependence on the object seems to the introvert a mark of the greatest inferiority, while to the extravert the preoccupation with the subject seems nothing but infantile autoeroticism. So it is not surprising that the two types often come into conflict. This does not, however, prevent most men from marrying women of the opposite type. Such marriages are very valuable as psychological symbioses so long as the partners do not attempt a mutual “psychological” understanding.

Examples of how Walter Mitty “sees everything that is in any way valuable to him in the subject” can be seen in all the episodes in which he is fantasizing about doing heroic or noble deeds. They are all triggered by objective reality and then immediately translated into subjective experiences. For example, his wife tells him he should see Dr. Renshaw, and he quickly begins imagining that he himself is a distinguished surgeon. Mitty pictures their family doctor in his fantasy as “haggard and distraught.”

“Hello, Mitty,” he said. “We’re having the devil’s own time with McMillan, the millionaire banker and close personal friend of Roosevelt. Obstreosis of the ductal tract. Tertiary. Wish you’d take a look at him.”

As another example, Walter Mitty is driving to town and notes that it looks like rain--and he immediately becomes Commander Mitty piloting a hydroplane through hurricane weather. The object becomes subjective. Jung states in Psychological Types that modern art has become more and more subjective. In painting many artists still use the object but do all sorts of weird things with it in order to express their own thoughts and feelings. Pablo Picasso is a prime example in his expressionist paintings such as the famous “Guernica.” Mitty is like Picasso in being more interested in his own thoughts, feelings, impressions and reactions than in the objective world in which he has to park cars and buy puppy biscuits. 

Where Jung writes “This does not, however, prevent most men from marrying women of the opposite type,” he seems to be saying that most introverted men marry women of the opposite type. Or else he only means that introverted men are usually content with being married to extraverted women. At least we see many marriages in which the husband is quiet and introspective while his wife handles all the domestic and social arrangements. She may even tell her husband what suit to wear to work and what necktie should go with it. Jung calls this "psychological symbiosis."

If the Mittys have a “symbiotic” relationship, what does Walter contribute? He is probably the one who earns the income—although it is his wife who spends most of it. He is the only one who can drive a car. Her concern about her husband may be largely a matter of dependence. Even her social life would be crimped if she were a widow or, worse yet, a divorcee rather than part of a couple. And this would be a serious matter for an extravert. 

I don't think that Walter Mitty is considered crazy by those around him because he does not merit that much attention.

If Walter was considered crazy, then attention would have to be paid to him. In the world that Walter lives, he does not merit that. No one pays significant attention to Walter. The people in the outside world treat him with scorn and derision. They laugh at him or simply don't acknowledge him in a meaningful way. He does not experience any significant human interaction. Even Walter's wife does not really pay significant attention to him. She dismisses him as needing a doctor to "look him over" or that he needs to have his temperature taken when they go home. However, she does not examine her husband's needs. She presumes he is fine because her needs are met. No one really pays attention to Walter and his experiences.

That leaves us with our reaction to Walter. It might be easy to dismiss him as crazy because of his frequent flights into his dreams. However, it should be clear to us that he longs for some type of meaningful personal contact. When he dreams, Walter is a person of importance. He has relevance and value to other people. Walter is not crazy for wanting some fragment of this in his daily life. He should not be seen as insane because he wants to be treated as the center of someone's universe. Walter cannot be nuts because he wants to be validated as a human being.

Walter finds in his dreams what he cannot achieve in his real life. We could fault him for being unable to articulate this need to the people around him. He might be worthy of criticism because he does not speak out against the people who denigrate him. However, this does not make him crazy. Sadly enough, it simply makes him human.