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Summer of 1980, a famous psychiatric hospital in the Harvard group, I was a medical student on a four week elective from Newcastle.
As usual, I asked the doctor in charge of the ward if I could interview a patient to discuss their condition - diagnosis, schizophrenia.
Answer: no you can't speak with him.
Pause.
You can't speak with him becuase he is paranoid, and you are a man; and paranoia is a fear of homosexual rape, so no male staff are allowed to speak with him.
Me - staring ahead, mouth open, groping for something to say. I could think of nothing to say.
Conversation ended.
This was 1980, Harvard Medical School - paranoia due to fear of homosexual rape?!
(Facepalm).
5 comments:
Harvard is famous for having a distinguished Business School.
I fear you were the subject of some kind of psychological experiment.
@josh - quite possibly. But the idea was 'mainstream' Freudian psychoanalytic at one time.
Sometimes, one is simply left speechless...
Tschafer
Paranoia is fear gone-to-seed.
It is non-specific.
One is met, often, with madness in these times.
In the unlikeliest of places :)
Like any threatening variable: storms, earthquakes, disease, it is often better to retreat, cautiously, until more benign conditions prevail.
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