The disassembly-and-reassembly Intake speech to Tina Echt

pivotal · late Aug YDAU (recalled 10 Nov YDAU)

• When: late August YDAU (2009), during Orientation; recalled by Hal on 10 Nov YDAU
• What: In a late-day Intake interview, Tavis tells seven-year-old Tina Echt what E.T.A. does: "What actually we do for you here is to break you down in very carefully selected ways, take you apart as a little girl and put you back together again as a tennis player who can take the court against any little girl in North America without fear of limitation." He extends it to the skull, then — vain "about my reputation for candor" — frightens the child to tears, kneels, over-apologizes ("totally my fault my dear"), and offers "a totally unthreatening lap." The signature Tavis performance: institutional violence delivered in the idiom of boundaryless candor and care.