You Are Not a Stranger Here - Adam Haslett [56]
WINSTON P. GOLLINGER, M.D.
231 PINE STREET
BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS 02346
November 15, 1997
Dr. Anthony Houston
McLean’s Hospital
115 Mill Street
Belmont, MA 02478
Dear Tony,
Thank you for your letter of November 10 concerning Daniel Markham. The tapes he’s mentioned to you are not a fabrication. He recorded several of them over the last six months. On his final visit to my office he asked that I take them for safekeeping. I’ve had my secretary type out a transcript, which is enclosed with this letter.
Daniel Markham came to me eighteen months ago suffering from alternating states of mania and depression. He was twenty-four, his parents were divorced, he was unemployed, single, and occasionally using narcotic painkillers, which he had a prescription for due to a long-standing back condition. Based on family history, notably a father with active bipolar disorder and Daniel’s own reports of labile mood states, a diagnosis of bipolar (I) wasn’t difficult to make. I began aggressive drug treatment and weekly consultations. Multiple drug regimens failed to produce significant changes in Daniel’s disease.
The tapes themselves center on what Daniel described as his “research.” Eight months ago he began talking about what he called “an anecdotal sociology of the philosophical urge in young men.” Coming as it did, as one in a series of manic projects and ideas, I took no particular note of it, other than the obvious connection with Daniel’s father, who, when he was younger, had earned a Ph.D. in philosophy and had been forced to leave his teaching position due to a depressive episode. Over the months, however, Daniel demonstrated what was, for him, an unusual consistency of interest in the project.
As you may have discovered for yourself by now, Daniel is often a charming person to be with, and it was hard to watch his situation decline. Hopefully under your care, in an inpatient setting, he will stabilize. Don’t hesitate to call if you have further questions.
Sincerely,
Winston P. Gollinger, M.D.
TRANSCRIPT OF TAPES RECORDED BY DANIEL MARKHAM,
MARCH 15–AUGUST 12, 1997
1. Interview with Daniel Markham’s father, Charles Markham
—Date is March 15th, ides of March . . . first entry on the Dictaphone . . . got it tied around my neck here . . . so . . . Dad’s here, he’s talking about—Dad?—I’m putting this on the research, okay?
—Which, given the rates in the bond market at the moment, is just absurd and I told him that, Danny, six and a quarter, maybe six and a half, and we could float the whole offering, the street would soak the paper up in a minute, and your sister and you could get a house, a boat . . .
—Is that Dr. Fenn still there at the clinic, Dad?
—Yeah, he’s there, but I—if they’d just take a promissory note and once I get into the currency markets it’s child’s play—cross market arbitrage—the yen and the ruble, the lira and the pound, an eighth of a cent here, a twentieth there, a big enough stake, and I mean they understand this down at the Fed, they know that I’d be a stabilizing force in the market, and with all the bad paper on the street—
—Do you see him much?
—Who?
—Dr. Fenn.
—He has dogs.
—In his office?
—Why are you in bed, Danny?
—I told you, Dad. My back. It’s killing me, it’s been killing me for months.
—He keeps them in a cement yard behind the clinic—three schnauzers and a Great Dane—they beshit themselves and I don’t like doctors who keep animals in that condition. Besides, he’s a behaviorist.
—But you have appointments with him, right? Sometimes?
—I don’t think he’s ever published an article in his life and when I go in there with a new study from Science or New England Journal of Medicine he gets very defensive. I always prefer doctors who publish . . . but anyway, there’s an underlying crisis at Treasury. Bond issues have been selling poorly and with the advance of the Euro there could be a flight from the dollar, which at the moment is the only benchmark currency we have, but that might change and if I can get in there, get in there with a stake