Dearest Honey,
I did some interesting reading today. First I finished “Brainstorm” by Carlton Brown (a condensation, of course). That was practically a case history of a recovered insane man. Gave the background and possible causes of the onset, described the depressed phase and went into great detail on the manic phas that forced him into a state hospital. The phases were separated by weeks, so I don’t know whether it was a true manic-depressive case on not. They did not name it, but mentioned cyclothemia a couple of times. This man thought that he was a “jitterbug Christ” and reached the height of his delusion at the World’s Fair. He didn’t have real illusions, but was hyper-sensitive to normal happenings, translating them all in terms of his own dreams. He gave a story of the state of the asylum that didn’t sound too good, and told of his slow, difficult recovery. Have you, by any chance, seen the real book? You’d enjoy it, Hon.
Then I found an article in a Life magazine about “psychosomatic medicine,” which is simply the study of emotionally caused physical disorders – peptic ulcers, asthma, high blood pressure, etc. It wasn’t too new, but I learned that they use sodium pentathol in the army to study psychiatric cases. That’s the same drug they have used on me frequently as an anesthetic during my various operations. The doctor here said they did use it in different quantities on cases where emotional blocks prevent memory of battle experiences, etc. It makes a rapid psycho-analysis possible by breaking down a patient’s resistance to memory. It does produce a very pleasant, dreamy sleep. I have told you about it more than once, haven’t I? Something like hypnosis, the doctor said. Again I was surprized when it said that 40 to 50% of army disability cases are of “psychosomatic” origin. That is a good new word to express the mind-body relationship that psychologists always plug.
It seems awfully good to me, Hon, to find even that much new material on psychology. It is easy for me to think in the vocabulary such books use, and it is very interesting. It is easy to drift off into baloney and pseudo-science in that vocabulary, but if you keep yourself in check it is the best method of describing human actions. Psychology is a hard subject to keep solid, but it is a little better than a purely philosophic approach.
Dear, I hope every day that your days are going as smoothly as mine. It is a big relief to me to be able to think about you any time I want to – and that is most of the time. Up front you can only think about home, which is you, for seconds at a time. Then you must force your thoughts back to the situation. Here I think of you and love you very sincerely and very deeply all the time. ‘Nite now, Bunny, sleep good and lean on me if you’d like to – I love you,
Wallace.
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