Psychiatry @ MindSay

 

Documented case of demon possession by Dr. Richard E. Gallagher who is a board certified psychiatrist and also a Professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Medical College. Dr. Gallagher documented the demon possession in the February issue of the New Oxford Review.

 

The story goes on to tell of Roman Catholic exorcists going to work on exorcising the demon.

 

I find the Roman Catholic ritualizing of exorcising fascinating; however that does not line up with a “What Would Jesus Do” moment. Jesus always was prayed up and cast a demon out with a command. Jesus gave this authority to all who Believe on Jesus. Believers can cast out demon by being prayed up and using the NAME OF JESUS.

 

·       ...they brought to Him [Jesus] many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, (Matthew 8: 16)

 

·       Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, saying, "Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are -- the Holy One of God!" But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!" And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He [Jesus] commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him." (Mark 1: 23 – 27)

 

·       When He [Jesus] had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. And suddenly they cried out, saying, "What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?" Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding. So the demons begged Him, saying, "If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine." And He said to them, "Go." So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water. Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. (Matthew 8: 28-33)

 

·       Then He [Jesus] appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons: (Mark 3: 15, 16)

 

·       And when He [Jesus] had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. (Matthew 10: 1)

 

·       And He [Jesus] called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits. (Mark 6: 7) [Scripture References from TheBibleSpeaks.com]

 

Trust me; there are more New Testament references which are similar.

 

Now you Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox or other ritualized Christians; don’t send me the haterade because I believe in the simplicity of the Word. I am not saying the ritual thing is ineffective or wrong (as many of my Pentecostal/Word fellow Believers would). For Jesus the Lord said,

 

38 Now John answered Him, saying, “Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.”
39 But Jesus said, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. 40 For he who is not against us is on our[c] side. (Emphasis mine - Mark 9: 38-40 NKJV)

 

I am saying don’t play with demonology if you don’t know what you are doing yet if it concerns you find and meditate on Scriptures that build faith and the sense of authority that Jesus gave to those who Believe on Him.

 

In either case it is fascinating that a secular trained psychiatrist is publishing in a respected psychiatric journal the case of a demonic possession and the use of Christian Faith to get rid of the bugger.

 

JRH

 

"Man," said Dr. Richards, as he stared into the video screen. "She's pretty!"

 

“She’s beautiful,” Jim agreed, though he worked very hard to intone his voice just so it wouldn’t suggest any hidden meaning. For there truly is none, he reminded himself.

 

“What’s her name?” The doctor inquired.

 

“Lea,” Jim answered. Chuckling nervously, he added, “I won’t tell you how hard I had to work to get her to act for this. She’s very camera shy, as much because she doesn’t know how beautiful she is, as anything else.”

 

“Damn shame,” Richards swore. “Have you told her?”

 

“How pretty she is? She doesn’t believe me. At best she believes that I think so under a delusion,”

 

“Damn shame,” the doctor repeated, his eyes still glued to the artistically monochrome video feed.

 

They talked of other things, pointless things, things not worth talking about on paid time, even for a reasonable rate for a therapist of Richards’ reputation. Jim still felt that it was ridiculous he was being made to see a therapist. This was the one place he was afraid he might not be in control of his feelings.

 

The screen faded to black, and Richards turned to face Jim, exposing to him his disgustingly unkempt round face and gnarled hair, both peppered prematurely with short, dead, white-grey hairs.

 

“So tell me more about Lea,” Richards offered.

 

Ah hell! He’s starting to fish for it. Jim cleared his throat nervously and said, “What do you want to know?”

 

“Just tell me about her, all about her.” The way he had said it had something inexplicably creepy about it.

 

That clears everything up.

 

“How did you meet her? What’s she like? Anything.”

 

Productive use of a rather expensive hour.

 

“She’s amazing,” He finally threw out. “She and I were in the same school when we were a lot younger, and got along pretty well, but we’ve only really been friends for a few years.”

 

Richards sat, massaging his ugly face, as if contemplating some deep mystery in Jim’s previous statement, seemingly unaware that the texture of that unkempt face would remind any sane person of an old, fleshy carpet. “Have you ever had any…deeper feelings for her?”

 

Well, at least he didn’t beat around the bush any longer. That particular wabe was becoming rather trodden-down.

 

“I don’t let myself.” Jim answered, truthfully.

 

Richards gave that skeptical laugh – you know the one I mean – the one with the know-it-all smile, with the eyebrow raised to insulting elevations, the one that sounds more like a forced exhalation, or the sneeze of a housecat. The laugh only served to remind Jim of his pedophiliac High School vice principal that was always on his case, which, in turn, as Jim would later explain, “pushed me over the edge from infuriated to just plain pissed off.”

 

Still, Jim wore a feigned smile as Richards compounded his condescending chuckle with an equally condescending and rhetorical question. Which are usually very condescending anyway, he thought.

 

“What do you mean, you won’t let yourself?” he asked with that same smile. “Either you feel that way about her or you don’t.”

 

“Feel what way?” Jim waffled.

 

“Feel attracted to her, feel like you want to be with her, hold her; you don’t need me to tell you.”

 

“Alright,” he admitted, in a much softer tone than he had intended. “She’s attractive; that’s no secret. I’ll admit, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings to be with her…all the time.”

He had said it with a Forest Gump-like innocence, and immediately fallowing the remark, Jim found himself hopeing that the liberal-minded doctor, who worked primarily with group-home rejects, had interpreted the statement with the appropriate level of innocence with which it was intended. Long shot, at best.

 

“Now he levels with me,” Richards said with an infuriating, self-righteous, “I knew it” – smile. “And let me guess,” he continued with that same, condescending smirk. “She doesn’t want anything to do with it.” Sensing Jim was sucking back tears, he added, “That hurts, man. That hurts like hell.”

 

That wouldn’t piss me off so much if he wasn’t right.

 

“I don’t blame her one bit for that.” Jim rebutted, the sting of the situation, and the frustration of having the issue raised at all, both leaking into his voice. The doctor just sat there, awaiting further clarification, so Jim continued. “I mean, neither do I. We’re only sixteen.”

 

Unable to comprehend the significance of the aforementioned age, Richards went on, “So…let me get this strait…even if she reciprocated your feelings, completely, you’d tell her, ‘sorry babe, I’ve been hurt, and so I don’t do relationships anymore.”

 

“No! Nobody’s hurt me! I don’t do relationships anyway!” Jim insisted.

 

“Well, maybe not for now, but you’ll get back out there eventually. There’s plenty of fish in the sea. You’re a master fisherman, and expert baiter, though I wouldn’t want to call you a master baiter.”

 

Jim wasn’t amused. “I will not be getting ‘back out there’” Jim said through his teeth, his eyes glowing with fire.

 

How can I make this certified unethical prick understand? They’re all alike! They say they won’t judge anybody, when what they really mean is that they won’t admit the faults of the criminal, the shameless, or their fellow unethical pricks, while mercilessly condemning anybody with any decent kind of chivalrous moral code.

 

“You’re honestly telling me,” Richards went on. “That if she called you up tomorrow and told you, ‘Jim, I think you’re a delicious babe; I totally want to jump your bones,’ that you would…”

 

That was it. Jim had heard many, many times more than enough. In a flash that can only be mimicked by a trained fighter caught up in a fury of chivalrous vengeance, Jim had his meaty hand around Richard’s throat, dragging him right out of his ratty, leather chair, and up against the wall. Now, Richard had worked with tough kids, from off the streets of any major metropolitan area in the western United States, and he knew how to handle any of them if they got rough, but nothing, not even a cutthroat, switchblade-wielding gang member from downtown L.A. could have prepared him for an angry country boy with eight years of combat training under his belt. Richard struggled, more successfully than Jim had anticipated, but still had to give up the moment the enraged teen opened his mouth.

 

“Now, you listen to me you son of a bitch!” Jim demanded, in worse language than I’m willing to repeat. “Nobody talks that way about Lea Miller around me. Now you may think you’ve got me all figured out, but that bogus degree don’t mean shit to me, faggot. You have no idea how I feel about that girl. But…” he continued, tightening his grip around the shrink’s throat. “I’m willing to bet you’ll learn pretty quick just how much I care about her.”

 

“Loook,” Richards gagged weakly. “That was inappropriate, I admit, but…”

 

WHAM!

 

“Jim’s free hand, rolled into a tight fist, collided at inconceivable speeds with the psyche’s jawbone, breaking it, and sending his round, crumpled mass careening to the floor, unconscious.

 

“Inappropriate? Peh. Send me your bill, asshole. I’m done here.”

 

As Jim tested his fingers to be sure none of them were broken, he was sure, as he would later tell, that he could hear the sound of a bell ringing, and an angel getting her wings back.

The Alienist is set in the captivating world of New York in the year 1896. Boy prostitutes are being viciously murdered. Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt (yes!) assembles a group of intelligent, unorthodox characters to ferret out the killer. Led by the infamous "alienist" (one who studies and treats the mentally ill) Dr. Lazlo Kreizler, the team desparately tries to find out the identity of the murderer before any more children are brutalized.

Why hasn't someone made a movie of this book? It is richly populated with characters both real and imaginary, the pre-1900's setting is historically interesting, and the main theme of how childhood shapes the adult mind is fascinating. Carr has constructed a wonderful historical thriller that comes alive in the mind's eye as you read it. This book is simply superb. Hello, any directors out there? Instead of remaking every horror movie from the 1970's, how about this story???

Here, I will help out by putting together a partial cast list, just to save you time and effort-
Dr. Kreizler- Daniel Day Lewis (dark, handsome, mysterious, brilliant, foreign)
John Moore- Colin Farrell (cad-ish, wealthy, jaded, likes to mix it up with undesirable types, smart)
Sara Hamilton- Claire Danes (shrewd, independent, fearless, carries pistols, beautiful)
Cyrus- Djimon Honounsou (cultured, menacing/intimidating air, fearfully well-built)
The Isaacson Brothers- David Schwimmer & Jonathan Silverman (quirky genius ahead-of-it's-time)
Stevie Taggert- Jamie Bell (tough, streetwise)

Now, that gives a good head start.

Book club members, our next novel is Century by Fred Mustard Stewart. I'm in a New York state of mind...

"Is this chuch presbyterian?" she asked.

 

"Yes it is," I said.

 

"Good." She smiled strangely. "I don't agree with those catholics. red flag 1 I think ministers should be able to get married if they want." I nodded tentatively. "And," she continued, "I should have listened to my son... he told me about those priests... and now he's G-A-Y." red flag 2

 

"Ohhh...yeah, that's tough," I managed weakly.

 

"But I've come here today to worship the one true God," she said smiling strangely. Her mouth was formed into a gray smile, but her eyes were cloudy and distant. "Of course, we don't know God, but we know the trinity, right?"

 

"Umm... yeah...." When she started talking about chanting to buddha, red flag no. 3 came up. At our church, there's roughly a thirty percent chance that a new person coming in off the street is drug addicted, mentally ill, or both. Add to that the buffet style religion most people practice, and it becomes a real challenge to engage people in meaningful conversations that lead to any kind of truth.

 

When this woman asked me if she could bless the congregation with a song, I politely told her we had it covered. I excused myself and continued on with the preparations for the morning service.

 

Lately, I'm meeting a lot of these type of people. They're out of touch with reality. They wrestle with invisible enemies and mysterious dark forces. They medicate themselves with narcotics. Cliche christian platitudes bounce off them like tennis balls. My usual response is to nod at them for twenty minutes as they ramble incoherently and then find an excuse to walk away. Our church's response, sadly, is to tolerate them until they create a disturbance, then they're sort of pushed out the door.

 

I believe "sanity" is a relative term. I think we are all touched with a little insanity in certain ways we look at the world. Probably, some psychologist would find me unstable in that I've claimed to hear God speak to me. But, as subjective as it can be, there are those who's lives are obviously tortured by a tumult in the mind. In the teachings of Christianity, the mind seems to be so important. We have to hear, understand, and respond to the plan of salvation. We have to be able to grasp ideas like original sin, atonement for sin, and assurance of salvation. These thought processes are beyond the ability of the insane, so what about them? 

 

I want to know more about how these folks can be helped. I don't want to avoid them. I don't want to pretend they'll be all right. I don't want to see them barely existing on the streets, harrassed and helpless. My suspicion is that few mentally afflicted people in history have ever found relief.

 

In my years of church-going I've never seen anyone who suffered from mental illness "delivered," although, that was Christ's method (and also the apostles.) We seem to be far removed from that type of ministry in the 21st century. I know they can do wonders with prescription drugs today. Maybe psychiatric ministries are the answer. 

 

I don't really know enough about it to talk about it. I don't want to be ignorant, though. If anyone has some insight or knows of a good book on the matter please let me know.

 

 

 

[posing for the cameras.]