Mmm, Sparkle (welcome, by the way!), that quote makes me think of a book I'm about halfway through right now: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Phaedrus was trying to run away from himself because he was too rational, and was using rationality to attack...er, let me amend that to...analyze himself (his entire being, that is, not in the sense of psychoanalysis). I am not sure yet, but I think this "shining of the light" on himself may have been what killed him.