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Shangri-la, issue 7, July-August 1948

Page 5

GLASS HOUSES

A Socialistic Article
By DAVID H. KELLER, MD

It was nearly dinner time in a State Hospital for the Insane. A middle-aged woman was standing in the long sun-parlor, monotonously wrapping a handkerchief around her right hand and then taking it off. Near her, three attendants stood yawning and waiting for something to happen. Then, without a word of warning, the patient jumped up and rand down the corridor, breaking pane after pane of glass with her fist. Before the nurses could bring her under control, she had smashed thirty-seven pieces of glass. So sharp had been the individual impact, so well-protected her fist with the handkerchief, that she was not even scratched.

The almost continuous crash of breaking glass attracted the attention of the Superintendent, who was in his office some distance from the sun-parlor. By the time he arrived on the scene, everything was quiet and the woman was chatting calmly with the nurses. When asked why she had destroyed so much hospital property, she simply replied, "Because I wanted to."

Months later, she completely recovered from her manic-depressive psychosis. With this recovery came complete insight into her previous mental condition--also perfect memory of all her past conduct. It was thought that the time was ripe to obtain a better understanding as to just why she had broken those window panes. Again she was interrogated, and this time he answer was far different:

"All my life I had always been annoyed by window glass. As a child, it came between me and so many things that I wanted. Often, I thought that if only I could break through it would be easy for me to take that special piece of jewelry or lovely hat. Of course, I never did throw a brick through a show-window, but I wanted to. I supposed that I repressed the desire. When I became insane I didn't care what I said or how I acted---all I knew was that I was going to do everything I wanted to do and say all that came to my mind. The morning I broke the windows, I thot something like this: that the windows were shutting me off from the things I wanted---air, and the free sunshine, and flowers, and liberty. I had remembered the hundreds of times in my past life when I had wanted to break windows to obtain my heart's desire but had been held back by the repressions of modern ethics. Now, I was insane, and nothing could hold me, and there would be no blame attached to me, so I just broke windows, and a lot of them, too, before the nurses caught me. I wouldn't do it now, but if I ever become insane again I certainly am going to smash every one I can."

Up to this time, it was the general opinion of physicians and nurses that breaking glass windows was simply a habit of the

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GLASS HOUSES A Socialistic Article By DAVID H. KELLER, MD It was nearly dinner time in a State Hospital for the Insane. A middle-aged woman was standing in the long sun-parlor, monotonously wrapping a handkerchief around her right hand and then taking it off. Near her, three attendants stood yawning and waiting for something to happen. Then, without a word of warning, the patient jumped up and rand down the corridor, breaking pane after pane of glass with her fist. Before the nurses could bring her under control, she had smashed thirty-seven pieces of glass. So sharp had been the individual impact, so well-protected her fist with the handkerchief, that she was not even scratched. The almost continuous crash of breaking glass attracted the attention of the Superintendent, who was in his office some distance from the sun-parlor. By the time he arrived on the scene, everything was quiet and the woman was chatting calmly with the nurses. When asked why she had destroyed so much hospital property, she simply replied, "Because I wanted to." Months later, she completely recovered from her manic-depressive psychosis. With this recovery came complete insight into her previous mental condition--also perfect memory of all her past conduct. It was thought that the time was ripe to obtain a better understanding as to just why she had broken those window panes. Again she was interrogated, and this time he answer was far different: "All my life I had always been annoyed by window glass. As a child, it came between me and so many things that I wanted. Often, I thought that if only I could break through it would be easy for me to take that special piece of jewelry or lovely hat. Of course, I never did throw a brick through a show-window, but I wanted to. I supposed that I repressed the desire. When I became insane I didn't care what I said or how I acted---all I knew was that I was going to do everything I wanted to do and say all that came to my mind. The morning I broke the windows, I thot something like this: that the windows were shutting me off from the things I wanted---air, and the free sunshine, and flowers, and liberty. I had remembered the hundreds of times in my past life when I had wanted to break windows to obtain my heart's desire but had been held back by the repressions of modern ethics. Now, I was insane, and nothing could hold me, and there would be no blame attached to me, so I just broke windows, and a lot of them, too, before the nurses caught me. I wouldn't do it now, but if I ever become insane again I certainly am going to smash every one I can." Up to this time, it was the general opinion of physicians and nurses that breaking glass windows was simply a habit of the (5)