CASE HISTORIES 5 



"At twenty-six I had romantic fancies. I was young and 

 strong, and finally the dreams ended in sexual intercourse. But 

 now I don't feel well, and women don't figure in them. I 

 feast my eyes on the nurses now, a sort of mental healing." 



On another day he said, " Here I sit and think. This morn- 

 ing I thought of our talk yesterday and of my choice of words. 

 I tried to find better ones. Then I tried for mental exercise to 

 orient myself, to picture the lay-out of the hospital." 



On noticing a picture of a pretty girl on a calendar he smiled 

 and said, "A picture like that evokes a smile from a young man. 

 Yes, I like pretty girls very much, sir. ("Do you think about 

 them much?") No sir, impossible. Well, occasionally. I 

 hardly ever have unpleasant thought. Pretty girls, largely es- 

 thetic. I admire beauty (gives a waggish grin). I think of 

 la fewme, her beauty, her voice. My mind is supreme. I get 

 imagining, then I realize it isn't reality, and I wake up and check 

 myself. It's delusional, but I'm matter of fact." 



General observations: He had been in the hospital a year 

 and a half before he was admitted to the endocrine ward. His 

 sole occupation had been to half-heartedly push a polishing block 

 along the corridors. Although he had parole of the grounds he 

 made no use of it, and only left the ward when forced to. Once 

 I compelled him protesting to walk to a building several hundred 

 feet away, and then abandoned him. He immediately turned 

 and plodded back towards his ward, but had paid so little atten- 

 tion to the surroundings that he had difficulty in recognizing 

 which building he had come from. 



At our first interview he said in a whispering voice, " I feel 

 weak, no, not weak but tired. I'm in a hospital and want to get 

 well. I'm getting what I need, food and fresh air. Getting well 

 and getting a rest to me seem the same thing. The Epicureans 

 said eat, drink, and be happy. I'm contented at the way things 

 are for the present. I'm just contented, that's all. I'm here 

 under authority. I do what I'm told. After I'm discharged I'll 

 visit my sister for a week, then get a job. I'm not afraid even 

 of physical work. In an extremity I could go back to chair 

 making. I might teach, but it's hard to find a job, for I speak 



