What to Bring, What Not to Bring When
Visiting
“Oh, if you’d ever been mentally ill, you’d
Know it was a distinctly unpleasant experience.”
Joanne Greenberg
What to bring: cheese blintzes
home made cookies
crackers and cheese
matches
books
All items gratefully received on the ward
and promptly given away to the first
passersby: books regarded with incomprehension,
pages torn, spines cracked, matches ignited
all at once, stepped on, extinguished underfoot
by unconcerned day nurses, food nibbled,
drooled on, gummed beyond recognition,
regurgitated.
What not to bring: chewing gum
salad dressing
nuts with shells
retractable ball-point pens
spices
objects with sharp edges
paperweights
toys especially those with snow
scenes
In the spare, unfinished institutional
auditoria, metal folding chairs gathered
in a ragged semi-circle, one attendant
for several large extended families and their
afflicted, loosely directed by a supervising
Doctor encouraging deepest fears to be expressed,
acted out, vocalized, a talking therapy that cures
no one. Rules of order are ignored, the afflicted
walk about, exchange clothing with others in kind,
random acts of self-expression, endlessly chanting
of phrases, nonsense words while others speak,
climb up to the microphone center court say,
"I'm cured. I'm saved. The Doctor is a miracle
worker. Praise the Doctor! Praise the Lord!"
Family members try a rational approach, remember
childhoods, past voices of reason, medicinal cures
the afflicted ignore, wildly masturbating, acting
out, beating a father, a mother, a spouse, finally
restrained.
Things to bring: tennis racket
tobacco patch
Jerry Mahoney doll
broken pocket watch
baseball glove and cards
golf clubs especially irons
grandfather's false teeth
Outside, after group, a patient recognizes
a participating Doctor by her plastic name tag
and laminated picture, pleads, "You must help me.
I have to get out of here. You've got to help me
get my leave papers. Sign them as soon as you get
them. I haven't seen a Doctor in 17 years."
Skeptically, curious the Doctor checks
the patient's claims. She learns that it is true.
Alan Catlin