A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise by Sandra Allen

Author:Sandra Allen [Allen, Sandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Right Treatment

Had I read Bob’s manuscript only up to the description of his first stay at Herrick Hospital, I might have supposed it was a screed against psychiatry as a whole. Or that he disputed the idea that there was something going on inside his brain, something that made it hard for him sometimes. But his manuscript didn’t dispute this; perhaps it’s what he meant when he wrote on his manuscript’s cover page that he was unable to identify with reality. He didn’t embrace the word “schizophrenia,” of course. The word he tended to use for himself, for how he was, was NUTS. Accordingly, he called psychiatric hospitals THE NUT HOUSE.

His manuscript included many positive opinions about the various facilities where he stayed—and the people who cared for him. He particularly liked the second one, which he called LA CASA VIA (it’s since closed; that was the name of its street). It’s important to pay attention, I think, to the aspects of the care he received that he actually found helpful.

THE PLACE WAS LIKE A RESORT, he remarked upon his first arrival there. As he did for several hospitals when describing his initial stay, he cataloged all of its amenities: THE CAFATERIA WAS FUN, THE UNITS WERE VERY CLEAN: THEYED MAKE YOUR BED FOR YA EVERYDAY, AND YOU COULD WARE SANYTHING YOU WANTED: THEY HAD A GREART PATIO A PIANO ROOM IN TWO ROOMS: A POOL TABLE, A PINGPONG TABLE, AN EXERCISE ROOM, AN ARTS AND CRAFTS ROOM, A WASHER AND DRIER AND FREE TO WALK ANYWHERE. There, he felt CARED FOR AS MUCH AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

He also talked about why he liked his new doctor: He WAS LIKE A MAFIA GUY GETTING YOUR LIFE SAVED, HE SEEMED TO REALLY CARE AND SHOW RESPECT, NO LIES, NO TRICKS, AND DID WHAT HE SAID HE WOULD:

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It was Bob’s new stepmom, Agnes, who found that second hospital—or perhaps she and Gene found it together, she couldn’t recall.

Agnes said she and Bob had met when she and Gene began dating. Gene had been her professor in graduate school, and she’d then worked as his secretary. She found Bob to be a “nice young man.” She recalled learning that he had been diagnosed as “paranoid schizophrenic” a few years before, adding that she certainly agreed with the paranoid part. She believed he’d been hospitalized even younger than sixteen; she guessed he would have been fourteen. She also recalled hearing he had undergone electroshock therapy at Herrick Hospital. Gene wasn’t sure whether that was the case; Bob made no mention of it in his manuscript. (The controversial therapy can cause memory loss and comas.)

When she became Bob’s stepmom, Agnes read everything she could about his diagnosis. She attended a support group for relatives of people with severe mental illnesses. After, she’d talk with Gene about what she’d learned, and they’d read things together, too.

Agnes, like Gene, felt that Bob did his best when he took his medications. She and Gene

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