Yet in Fitzgerald’s novel, as in real-life cases of these modern wives and mistresses, the woman’s “disordered language” is also used to convict her, to diagnose and name her—“Diagnostic: Schizophrenie.” The “case” is not an author, and so the letters, inspired by Zelda’s letters, are viewed not only as diagnostic examples but also the raw material for the book about the patient-wife that Dick is trying to write (the case
