The Three Christs of Ypsilanti - Milton Rokeach [87]
I ask him whether he is pulling our leg with his tale of cosmic pictures. At this he gets upset and says he doesn’t like to be ridiculed. To prove his point, he takes a cosmic picture of a lady visitor. He tells her to look “moderately serious,” and goes through all the motions of a commercial photographer, adjusting lights, camera, pose, and finally shooting the picture. He does all this with a seriousness far too grim to be classified as dead-pan comedy.
June 1. It turns out that only Leon went to see the occupational therapist—without Joseph, after all. Here is her report:
Patient came to O.T. after working hours in Vegetable Room and explained to me he was going to write a book. He had paper to make his own book, but needed materials to put the book together.
1st. He would like for me to take him to the Furniture Dept. to ask them to drill holes one eighth inch apart through the paper to make it easier for him to lace the pages together.
2nd. Now he would like to go to the sewing dept. to get enough thread for the book.
3rd. “Will you please take me to the shoe shops, for I will have to have some wax for the thread to make it stronger.”
4th. Patient asks if I would help hold thread while he runs the wax over it.
5th. “Now Ma’am, will you please give me a needle and thread it for me, as most women are used to threading needles in sewing.”
6th. He sat down in my dept. working very hard to pull the thread through the paper. I asked him if he was having troubles. He said, yes. The thread seems constipated, and he could now understand why book binders have ulcers.
7th. “Ma’am, I am through. Will you please let me out and I will go upstairs and have this trimmed.”
8th. The following morning he wanted to speak to me. He said, “Ma’am, yesterday you introduced me to the ladies upstairs as Doctor Dunn. I beg to differ with you, it is Doctor R. I. Dung, or just call me Rid.” I apologized and he thanked me. “I knew you would help me,” he said.
June 3. Leon looks better than I have seen him for a long time. He smiles more often and is more friendly. Also, since he has a ground card he does not run off to the toilet as much as he used to.
June 6. By bringing up the question of the float, we try to direct the men’s activities into more realistic channels, suggesting that they make a large map of the grounds and buildings and glue on leaves to represent different trees in their proper location. They all begin to talk about how to do it. Leon becomes almost enthusiastic about the project. Joseph is less enthusiastic, but agrees to help sketch the map showing the roads, walks, and buildings. Clyde says he will help collect the leaves. Leon, eager to begin the project, asks that the meeting be adjourned so they can get started right away. We try to get Joseph and Leon to go outside together. Neither wants to. They seem enthusiastic about the project—at least Leon is—but they will not co-operate with each other. Is it because they have special attitudes toward each other, or is it because they are schizophrenics and have great difficulty in relating themselves to a task co-operatively with other human beings?
June 8
Dear Dr. Yoder:
This afternoon, I took in, to your secretary, my records on the trees and enough shrubberies, so that you and your secretary can assemble a record as you wanted, and as stated in your letter.
And now, I’ll give you a list of the birds, which fly the hospital grounds. [Long list of birds follows.]
Yours truly,
Joseph Cassel
June 9. Leon Scotch-tapes a large sheet of brown wrapping paper onto one wall of their sitting room. He explains