Can'st thou not minister to a mind diseased?

created by lumina

(idea) by lumina (?) (print) ? (I like it!) 1 C! Sat Nov 13 1999 at 10:14:06

Doctor: Not so sick, my lord,
As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies,
That keep her from her rest.

Macbeth: Cure her of that.
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?

Doctor: Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.

--Macbeth V.iii

(idea) by allseeingeye (1.7 wk) (print) ? (I like it!) 10 C!s Tue Oct 14 2003 at 18:13:05

Chicago State Hospital
4200 West Irving Park Road,
Chicago IL 60634

Mental Fitness to Stand Trial Assessment - addendum to file
Mr. Giovanni Redonna
November 1, 1930

I regret to inform the court of the unexpected passing of Mr. Redonna, who died by his own hand last night in his cell. The incredible violence of his demise is currently under independent investigation. Passersby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood. Mr. Redonna, who was under my care, showed signs of a seriously declining mental state, lapsing into a pre-catatonia between periods of intense psychotic episodes. His death, while alarming, is not at all uncommon in this type of mental breakdown. The extent of Mr. Redonna's illness cannot be understated. He was completely mentally isolated from reality, living in a nightmarish world of his own creation. It is the assessment of this doctor that Mr. Redonna was utterly unfit for trial, and furthermore, it is quite extraordinary that a man suffering from such extensive mental illness was even able to appear even marginally sane, let alone function independently in society. I would call into question the investigative techniques of the Chicago Police Department, if not for the independently verified reports of Mr. Redonna's lucidity in the weeks prior to his incarceration. Had this testimony not come forth, I would caution the court that Mr. Redonna's case fits the textbook description of pinning a crime on a mental defective in order to have it off a precinct's rap sheet. I feel ill at ease about this case, as I have never, in all my years of study and practice, come across so rapid a decline in mental fitness. It is a disturbing anomaly in the annals of psychiatry, and I have forwarded this case to the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association for review. I would recommend the court strike the testimony of Mr. Giovanni Redonna on the basis of his highly fractured mental state and deep psychosis. He cannot be held responsible for his actions, or be used as a reliable source of testimony on the actions of others.

Attached for review are the most recent notes taken while assessing the patient.

Dr. John Bellweather
CSH

October 29th, 1930
11:36 am

Dr. Bellweather: Good morning Mr. Redonna. How are you feeling today?

Giovanni Redonna: ...

DB: Come now Giovanni, are we going to do this again? If you don't answer my questions, how can I help you?

GR: You can't help me Doc. Trust me.

DB: You keep saying that Giovanni. How do you know I can't help? What makes you feel helpless?

GR: (whisper) I keep telling you. Stupid fuck.

DB: Come now Giovanni, do we need to keep using such foul lang..(Interrupted)

GB: (shouting) It was the fucking Devil! What the fuck can you do about the Devil you fucking shrink? Nothing! (screams) (sound of chair moving)

(Sounds of struggle)

DB: Sedate him.

GR: You're fucked! We all are! He's fucking here. (laughter)

DB: Take him back to his cell.

Orderly: Come on you.

GR: (whisper) it was the fucking Devil, clear as day you dumb ...

DB: Stop the tape.

October 30th, 1930
3:04 pm

GR: (singsong) I haven't had this much fun since Whitechapel. It's almost as fun as Lorient!

DB: Giovanni, can you hear me?

GR: (singsong) Eight little whores, with no hope of heaven. Gladstone may save one, and then there'll be seven.

DB: Note for the recording, the patient has been heavily sedated. Shock treatments may be used to reverse catatonia later today. Patient is non-responsive.

GR: Se non � vero, � bene trovato.

DB: I'll have to get that translated later. Giovanni, tell me about the night in the processing plant. Tell me about it again.

GR: Oh, I remember that! That was quite a night, quite a night! We were making a mess and cleaning it up, cleaning it up and making a mess...
(whisper) They all don't believe me doctor, but I saw him. Plain as day. HE was as red as a cardinal. He talked to me you know. He said "Hello Giovanni, lovely day isn't it? Come, lets us see about these here fuckers what we gotta cut up". I.. I..

DB: Go on Giovanni.

GR: We hung them on the hooks, like the sides of beef they was designed for. Up under the chin. These mooks had been on ice for months. I had to haul on they's feet to get the hooks in. We hung up all the kikes in a row. They was Hershel's boys from up on the West side. We had them in the back of the freezer at Don Paulo's on Front Street for months. I dropped the Mick shopkeeper who ratted on Jimmy the Nose off the back of the truck and he broke like a slab a ice. (shout) Holy fuck that was funny. I had three pieces a frozen fucking Mick on the floor. (laughter)

DB: What where you doing at the meat processing plant Giovanni? What did you see?

GR: Hey Jimmy. Look at this freaking Mick. He's broke! (laughter) I don't know where the guy is. Boss says he meets him here. Hey fuck you Jimmy, you ask him. Like I wanna know where the fuck these frozen bastards go. As long as they ain't in Donnies freezer making the meat taste funny, I could give a fuck. Hey shut up Jimmy. Here he comes.

DB: (aside) Subject appears to be in a fugue state. He is non-responsive to external stimuli.

GR: No! NO! NO! (screams)

DB: Giovanni! Wake up! What's happening? What did you see?

GR: (screams)

DB: Stop the tape.

October 31th, 1930
9:36 am

DB: Subject seems to remain unresponsive even after heavy sedation and mild shock treatments last night. He is violent and suicidal, apparently terrified that some one is coming to kill him. He has been given a large dose of Sodium Pentothal (30 ml) and is restrained. He has bitten his tongue and knocked out several teeth.

DB: Giovanni, can you hear me?

GR: Yah doc.

DB: What are you afraid of Giovanni? Was it something from that night?

GR: I told you doc. It was the Devil. He's not done the job.

DB: Ok Giovanni. I believe you. So, this man..(unintelligible)

GR: (interrupting) No doc. It was no man. No fucking way. It was the Devil, with a capital D.

DB: Ok. Go on. Tell me what happened.

GR: May as well. We is all fucked anyhow.

DB: Why?

GR: Cause, the Devil is loose again. He's been around for a long time Doc, and I think he's out on vacation. Me and Jimmy and Toni was down at the plant, Mario's plant where they make the sausages, and we was getting rid of some bodies of guys we whacked for the boss. A bunch of stiffs nobody wanted floating in the Lake, right? So we takes the stiffs to the plant and get ready to grind em up and toss em in the furnace. We are supposed to meet a clean up guy who makes sure nothing gets left laying around for the Feds. Antoni gets all pale right after we get there and says that he has to go call the Boss. The rosary he fucks with all the time breaks and he runs off down the street screaming in Italian like a fucking Sicilian. Me and Jimmy laugh until we almost piss our pants and then I drop the Mick on the floor and bust him up. Then, right out of the fucking furnace, this shape pops up. (shout) Fucking on fire and bloody and red! Jimmy just fucking died. His.. his face..(unintelligible)

DB: Go on.

GR: He.. he just started bleeding, all over. Like somebody hit him with a plate glass window. I was scared doc. I wanted to run or scream or piss my pants but I was stuck. It.. It came up to me.. I..(unintelligible)

DB: What's the matter?

GR: It was like it happened, but it was so fucking real.. He was in my head I think and then he said "Oh this is a great place you have here I love the decorations" and then he told me that he was here for a while and stuff was going to happen and that he was looking forward to seeing me later and then about the future and the past and how proud he was of us all and....

DB: (interrupting) Giovanni, slow down.

GR: (shout) I had a great time in Whitechapel! The last War was great! Lets do it again! You're all gonna cut your own throats! Oh have I can't wait for that lovely bomb! The Mick's head talked to me and swore it would eat me fucking balls in Hell and I saw that (unintelligible) girl I choked back in the alley when I was twenty and she fucked me and stabbed me in the heart and the eyes of the black dark stuck in my guts and the burning ate me shining black soul chewed up fuck (unintelligible) kill (unintelligible) hell (screams)

DB: Giovanni! Somebody get stick him. (shout) He's loose from the restraints!

GR: (screams) He is coming for me! Help me! Fucking help me!

DB: Stop the tape! Get him out of here!

GR: (screams)

For The Blood is the Life: A Frightful Halloween Quest.

printable version
chaos

Se non � vero, � bene trovato	The Blood is the Life: A Frightful Halloween Quest	Your only fault is your humanity	olfactory hallucination
Great minds do not think alike	smokers' rights	Why Robert Heinlein bugs the hell out of me	Whitechapel
anti-psychiatry	Mick	Victorian Novel Disease	Sodium Pentothal
Multiple Personality Disorder from the Inside Out	William Blake and the "two contrary states of the human soul"	Kike	Passersby were amazed by the unusually large amounts of blood
L'Orient	mook	Modern physics abuse syndrome	disease of sympathy
Jack the Ripper	Macbeth	Mourning a vacant shadow	Primal Therapy

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