Читать книгу The Mask of Sanity - Hervey M. Cleckley - Страница 7

The present volume grew out of an old conviction which increased during several years while I sat at staff meetings in a large neuropsychiatric hospital. Many hundreds of such cases as those presented here were studied and discussed. The diversity of opinion among different psychiatrists concerning the status of these patients never grew less. Little agreement was found as to what was actually the matter with them. No satisfactory means of dealing with them was presented by any psychiatric authority, and meanwhile their status in the eyes of the law usually made it impossible to treat them at all. They continued, however, to constitute a most grave and a constant problem to the hospital and to the community.

Since assuming full-time teaching duties at the University of Georgia School of Medicine, I have found these patients similarly prevalent in the wards of the general hospital, in the outpatient neuropsychiatric clinic, and in consultation work with the various practitioners of the community and with the hospital staff. The overwhelming difficulty of finding facilities for their treatment has been no less urgent than the yet unanswered question of what measures to use in treatment. How to inform their relatives, the courts which handle them, the physicians who try to treat them, of the nature of their disorder has been no small problem. No definite or consistent attitude on the part of psychiatric authorities could be adduced in explanation; no useful legal precedent at all could be invoked, and no institutions found in which help might be sought by the community.

I should like here to express my appreciation for their encouragement and guidance about this and about other neuropsychiatric problems to Dr. R. T. O’Neil, Dr. William M. Dobson, Dr. M. K. Amdur, Dr. O. R. Yost, and Dr. M. M. Barship. To all of them as colleagues, and in varying degrees as teachers, during my years with the United States Veterans Administration, I am sincerely grateful.

Dr. John M. Caldwell, of the U.S. Army Medical Corps, Dr. Cecile Mettler, Dr. Phillip Mulherin, Dr. F. A. Mettler, Dr. Lane Allen and Dr. Robert Greenblatt, all of the faculty of the University of Georgia School of Medicine, I should like to thank for their interest and helpful criticism in the preparation of this work. Nor can I fail to mention here the kindness and active co-operation of other departments in the School of Medicine which, though less directly related to the present study, have been a valuable and constant support to the Department of Neuropsychiatry. Though I name only a few, I should especially like to express appreciation to Dean G. L. Kelly, Dr. J. H. Sherman, Dr. C. G. Henry, Dr. E. E. Murphey, Dr. Perry Volpitto, Dr. R. F. Slaughter, Dr. R. H. Chaney, Dr. W. J. Cranston, Dr. H. T. Harper, Dr. Lansing Lee, and Dr. J. D. Gray. The interest and understanding shown by these and others in the problems of the newly organized full-time Department of Neuropsychiatry have been more helpful than they know.

To Dr. Lawrence Geeslin, Dr. C. M. Templeton, Dr. Joe Weaver, Dr. Alex Kelly, and Dr. DuBose Eggleston, all of the Resident Medical Staff at the University Hospital, I am grateful for their fine and wise efforts to make neuropsychiatry an effective influence on the wards of a general hospital.

It is hard to see how the present manuscript could have reached completion without the understanding and energy contributed to its making by my secretary, Miss Julia Littlejohn.

Mr. Berry Fleming and Mr. Donald Parson, one as a distinguished novelist and one as a poet, but both sharing the psychiatrist’s interest in human personality, have kindly made available to me their valuable points of view.

This volume owes a large debt to Dr. W. R. Houston, formerly Clinical Professor of Medicine in the University of Georgia School of Medicine, now of Austin, Texas. As my first teacher in psychiatry and still as a bracingly honest critic and a skeptical but always enheartening guide, Dr. Houston’s uncommon learning in many fields and his kindness have been an important support.

Most of all it is my pleasure to thank Dr. V. P. Sydenstricker, Professor of Medicine in the University of Georgia School of Medicine, whose genuine human qualities no less than his specific achievements in medicine and his remarkable energy, have encouraged, year after year, scores of less seasoned and sometimes groping colleagues to do sounder work and to find joy that is the stuff of life in even those daily tasks that would in another’s presence become mere routine. Real wisdom joined with real humor cannot fail to be expressed in a rare and discerning kindness. These qualities, all in full measure, have done more not only to deal with illness, but also to reintegrate at happier and more effective levels those who have worked with him than their possessor can realize. It is indeed difficult to express fairly the gratitude which informs this writer in mentioning the constant encouragement, generous help, and the major inspiration that have come from Dr. Sydenstricker to the Department of Neuropsychiatry.

HERVEY CLECKLEY

Augusta, Georgia.