| 'Here's our patient. He's
sleeping now after a large dose of chloral hydrate and morphine. Poison
the hopeless cases slowly is our secret motto. However, perhaps Grün is
right. I'm not one of those stubborn psychiatrists who are unwilling to
accept anything new. I consent to this experiment, especially since
Professor Walldorff and I have exhausted all other means. Dementia
praecox. If you, Sister, could - although I very much doubt it - resolve
the patient's 'complex' - as the psychoanalysts call it - and penetrate,
with the help of your feminine intuition, into the dark spot in his
soul, the forgotten place, the 'psychic wound', as they say, I would be
only too delighted with Grün's success. As far as psychoanalysis is
concerned, I acknowledge its diagnostic techniques, but have no
confidence whatsoever in its therapeutic value. It is fine for those
people who can devote their entire lives to being cured.'
The opening speech of The
Madman and the Nun
(NY: Applause, 1989) |
 |
Self-Portrait