Bancroft refers to "those cold blue eyes of his" and his "peculiar mirthless laugh." Carl Jung, who treated both women, said Dulles was "quite a tough nut." Talbot notes that there was "an impenetrable blankness that made him hard to read." This description approximates Jung's take on Hitler that Talbot juxtaposes on the same page - that Hitler seemed like "a mask, like a robot, or a mask of a robot." Mary Bancroft recalled that the emotionally dead Dulles's favorite word was "useful." People were only good to him if they were useful. His daughter Joan told Talbot that her father was "clearly not interested in us." A grinning Dulles once told Mary that his feigned bonhomie, his avuncular demeanor, and trusting attitude toward people were an act. He said, "I like to watch the little mice sniffing at the cheese just before they venture into the little trap. I like to see their expressions when it snaps shut, breaking their little necks."
