Schizophrenia: Gerald, Part 1

- [Narrator] Gerald S.
is grossly delusional

and thought-disordered.

He is currently on the
following medications.

Haloperidol, 32 milligrams daily.

Benztropine B, four milligrams daily.

- Not doing so hot, I think
and feel as though people

have called me here to
electrocute me, judge me,

put me in jail, or kill me, electrocute me

because of some of the sins I've been in.

- [Doctor] Is this a new feeling for you?

- The main thing is don't get excited.

But the thing is,

it's not a new feeling, no.

I'm scared of people.

- [Doctor] Must be very
frightening for you though.

Feel like you're about to get killed.

- It's so scared, I can tell you

that picture's got a headache.

- [Doctor] Can you tell
me more about that?

The picture has a headache.

- Do you wanna know?
- Yes I do.

- Okay, when a sperm and an
egg go together to make a baby,

only one sperm goes up in the egg.

And when they touch,
there's two contact points

that touch before any other two.

Then it's carried up into the egg.

When they fuse, it's like nuclear fusion,

except it's human fusion.

There's a mass loss, the proton.

One heat abstraction
goes up in the electron,

spins around, comes back
down into the proton

to form the mind.

And the mind could be reduced to one atom.

- Gerry, in one patient at one time,

shows almost every one

of the major features of schizophrenia.

His thinking is disorganized.

The thoughts are loosely connected.

He has formed delusional ideas.

Some of those delusions are grandiose.

Some of them are paranoid.

He has disturbances in his mood.

His mood is in some cases almost absent

and in other cases is
totally inappropriate.

And his behavior is
disordered, it's unusual.

He has mannerisms that are inexplicable.

He has purposeless, aimless
behavior around the ward.

He's a textbook case.

He combines all those
things in one person.

- [Doctor] At this point,
what would you like us to do

for you?
- I would like you

to get me off of cigarettes.

Get me dried out, cleaned
up, so I can go home

and get a job in a bakery,
and go to medical school.

- Gerry's voices may at times
say, you raped that woman.

In a case where he may have
just seen a woman on the street,

the voices will accuse
him of assaulting her.

One of the things that worries me

about Gerry and about many patients

is at times his voices
tell him to do things.

In just the short time
he's been in this program,

the voices at times have told him

that he's got to leave because
we're going to hurt him.

So obviously, they say things
that greatly distress him,

that scare him.

- Nice to see you.
- Dr. Bigelow's

Clinical director.

Wanna sit there?

Well, thank you for coming down.

- Dr. Bigelow.
- Good morning.

How are you today?

- About to get my teeth
knocked out, I feel like.

'Cause I'm nagging
people, I'm playing a game

with my psychological pain.

But it exists.

- I know it does, Gerry, that's
why you're here, isn't it?

To see if we can help you with it.

- Gerry, I think the big question today

is if you stay, and when you and I

met with Dr. Bigelow on Friday,

that wasn't very certain.

And that's the whole reason
that your mother flew out here.

- I will stay if my mom stays.

- Well, I told you before that
I can't stay continuously.

- Well, how is that working?

- We can come down maybe
once every six weeks

and stay a week, but I can't-

- See what I'm doing right now.

I understand what I'm doing.

I've got you one down and
I'm not gonna let you up.

And that's a game, that just gets you mad.

- Truly deep down he knows

that this is the last chance
he's got of having anything

and being able to control
anything that he's wants

or tries to do.

- Yeah, I can-
- And he knows

that if he turns his back
on it, that he's had it.

- I hate you.

Dr. Petrolley in Detroit
looked at my transcripts,

and he started going like this.

Gerald, just, what could you have done

if anything had ever went right for you?

Been my boss?

- Can I interrupt you?

If-
- Every time in school

that I was gonna do something,

I would raise my hand,

and a colored kid would stab
me in the back of the neck.

What is your explanation for that, God?

That's what you're afraid to say.

What is your explanation over that?

'Cause you can't say it.

- My explanation is, is that you feel

that whatever decision you
make, you're gonna lose here.

And maybe that's why it's so hard

for you to make that decision.

- My dad told me to stay here.

I will stay if my mother will stay.

There's no pressing job for her.

She can have my social
security check to live on

while she's here.

- [Doctor] Is that possible Mrs. Smith?

- I told him that I
could we could come down

once a month maybe and stay a week.

- You're gonna get me not scared

so I'm not scared while
this dude's playing

boogie woogie with me.

- But, Gerry, listen a minute.

You mean that you can't
stay away once a month?

Let us come once a month and see you.

- I mean, in walked this one
old dude with green teeth.

And I couldn't think of nothing to do,

so I just reached out and
kicked old green teeth

right in the knee.

- [Doctor] Your mom asked you a question.

- Gerry-
- If I'm not scared,

I won't kill ya.
- Gerry, it's important

that you listen to me for a minute.

- [Gerry] Why, are you
gonna tell me Dad's dead?

- No, if you go back, you-
- You gonna tell me

Snoopy's dead?
- You had better listen.

Don't think of something else
while I'm talking to you.

Listen to what I'm saying.
- I'm not talking to you

at all.
- Okay, if you go back,

you may wind up in a hospital

that I won't even get to come
and see you once a month.

- You are not my-
- Do you understand me?

- Do you realize this is my mother

and I'm trying to keep her alive?

Now, what do you recommend, doctor?

- [Doctor] I recommend
you give her a chance

to listen to her.

- Don't you think it would be better

that you stay here on your own?

Where you-
- No.

- Where you signed yourself in.

- I don't.
- Gerry, I think that you're-

- You don't know-
- Confused enough about,

and frightened enough

that I'd be afraid you would hurt yourself

if you weren't in a hospital.

- [Gerry] Okay, now you are
afraid that I would hurt myself

if I wasn't in a hospital.

Now why is that?

- Because of what you've said.

- [Gerry] Because you're not afraid?

- No, from what you've said

- [Gerry] I think my dad
can treat me very nicely.

- Well, I understand that your
dad knows that you have to

be in a hospital for that.

- I can't see why you
can't stay and participate

on good terms without-
- Because I was raped

going to kindergarten about five times.

- That was a few years ago.
- Okay.

Let me give it to you a different way.

How long has it been since
I dreamed I was there

in hillbilly heaven?

Or how long has it been since
town without pity for rape?

Or how long has it been since

the man who shot Liberty Valance?

- My first impression of his family

was the one I have in
a lot of these cases.

And that's that they're
like a group of people

that have been struck by lightning.

Their son has developed
a terrible illness,

has been through lots of treatment,

and has not gotten much better.

And they feel devastated by it.