Footfalls above "we would see the tracing on the stage floor of a tremendously elongated variation of the figures 8 turned on its side … the mathematical symbol for infinity." Beckett was also indebted to the French psychologist Pierre Janet for his conception of hysterical behaviour. In his overview of Janet's work, Robert Woodworth in his "Contemporary Schools of Psychology", a work Beckett read, pays particular attention to Janet's description of the "hysterical paralysis of one arm", which Beckett incorporated, into May's posture. There are a number of analogies between "Footfalls" and Janet's work with a patient called Irène: He lists
Infinity on High talents so compellingly, the album is regrettably haphazard." Caroline Sullivan of "The Guardian" believed that the album was overly sullen, but noted that "They may not be happy, but they haven't forgotten to be catchy." Barry Nicholson of "NME" found the amount of guest producers to be unnecessary and disliked some of the songs, but admired the album's "infectious" nature. "Infinity on High" was a major commercial success, debuting at number one on the US "Billboard" 200 chart, with first week sales of 260,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. "Infinity" has sold 1.4 million copies in