Old (professional) Adam

Congratulations on spotting the right reference in Wiktionary. The Old Adam is, Merriam-Webster tells us, "unregenerate human nature", quoting the Book of Common Prayer: "grant that the old Adam in this child may be so buried". It's the ineluctable tendency of fallen humanity to revert to its original sin.

And in Smiley's world, from novel to novel to novel, the cardinal sin, the trap which the professional spy must be most wary of falling into, is pridefully believing that he and his agency are knowledgeable and competent.

So Smiley must school himself not only to confess his past failure but also to suppress his hybristic assumption that he now understands what happened and is therefore capable of rectifying the situation.

But this is straying off-charter, into literary criticism.

I believe “the old professional Adam” should be read as “the old professional in him, the old Adam”, where “old Adam” is taken in a sense like an innocent or uncorrupted. I'll explain further, but first some background on the phrase “old Adam”. Historically it seems to have two opposing meanings; one referring to innocent man before the fall, the other to corrupted (or corruptible) post-fall man.

For the former usage, see for example footnote to 13, 14 of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors Act IV, Scene 3; the footnote remarks, “But why is the officer called old Adam new apparelled? The allusion is to Adam, in his state of innocence, going naked; and immediately after the fall, being clothed in a frock of skins.”

For the latter, see for example item 64 in Luther's Large Catechism: “Baptism, which is nothing else than putting to death the old Adam, and after that the resurrection of the new man ... For this must be practised without ceasing, that we ever keep purging away whatever is of the old Adam”.

Returning to the passage from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, we have Le Carré describing Smiley's thoughts; we see on the one hand his self-corruption: “he had schooled himself to admit ... he had been guilty of seeing things out of proportion”. On the other hand we have the old professional, the old uncorrupted Adam, seeing things as they are: “You know the place went bad, you know Jim Prideaux was betrayed.”