Some of the Most Interesting People
Before leaving this often-dispiriting assessment of social deviance and psychopathy, I want to offer some of my own personal reflections on working within institutions that treat psychopathy. I found, to my initial surprise, that the residents of these institutions are among the most interesting people with whom I have ever had the pleasure and honor of associating. Groucho Marx is purported to have declared that he would never join a club that would allow him to be a member. I would suggest that one of the most interesting clubs to join would be the club that is open only to those people who would be denied access to most clubs – these people being those who are declared to be psychopathic and social deviants.
Jokes, Courage and Tragedies
I personally have had the opportunity to work in two mental institutions. One was a highly prestigious institutions in New England (affiliated with an even more prestigious university). The other was a Veterans administration hospital in the Western United States (on which One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was partially based). Some of the most memorable people I have met in my long life were residents of these two institutions. I vividly remember the day when residents of the prestigious institution (along with several of the staff) decided to pull a joke on the many visitors who routinely visited their ward. The staff became the “inmates”.
They began playing with toys brought to the ward by a child who was living on the ward with her mother (one of the “crazy” residents). Several of the residents, in turn, put on the white coats of the staff (complete with stethoscope and clip board). These new “staff members” would comment to visitors about the very regressed condition of the “insane” patient playing with the toys. Technical, mental health terms were bandied about by these reverse-role staff members – to the delight of the visitors (who were finally seeing the “reality” of a mental institution). This reverse role playing was a source of great joy for both the patients and the staff – and may have been “therapeutic” for both the healers and those being healed.
I also remember the very traumatic day of John F Kennedy’s assassination. One of the women on the ward had envisioned herself as Jacqueline Kennedy (having faced massive trauma and neglect in her own life). Now, even her fantasized husband had been killed. Nothing was safe for her in real life or fantasy. I witnessed a woman of remarkable courage and poise in the midst of this death-of-a-fantasy. Her behavior on the ward was just as dignified as that manifest by the real Jacqueline Kennedy. And she was treated with respect and a great deal of compassion by both the staff of this hospital and her fellow patients.
