Summary
When psychiatrists are treating their patients, they never use the word "cure". Instead they say that they are trying to clear their minds, therefore freeing them from anxiety, depression, and mental illness. A patient named SLouis Shaw was put into McLean hospital because he killed someone. It was his cousin Louis and his explanation for doing so was that he did something that was highly inappropriate. It was later found out that Louis was reported for killing Delia, his maid, by choking her death. His motive for doing so was not determined, but the crime brought shame to his family. It was on the front cover of newspapers and magazines. But Louis never went to trial. He was sent to the asylum in Bridgewater and then McLean. Louis was treated with respect there.
One psychiatrist mentioned that the McLean hospital conisted of patients whose families did not want then to get better. Louis Shaw was an example of this. His family did not want him to regain his sanity because after he did he would have to go to trial for murder. His lawyers paid bills on time and he was considered harmless majority of the time. He was considered one of the many patients who were offered more in McLean hospital than they would be offered on their own. Louis dressed oddly and he was a huge slob. However, in his late seventies his nurses found him relatively easy to control. But later McLean officials decided that it was time to let him go because having him there was becoming very expensive. Instead, he was placed in a North Shore nursing home. He was stabilized as far as his mood was concerned because of the drugs he was taking, but his therapist suggested that he could still get vicious and violent. When he died, he left almost four million dollars in assets. The McLean hospital was trying to get some of that money in order to restore the Pleasant Street gatehouse since Louis was staying there for a period of time.
Quote
"So we went to the lawyers and we proposed a deal. We named a price, about $500,000, and we said we'd keep Louis for that price. If he died in a year, we'd make a lot of money, but if he lived ten years, we'd lose a lot of money. It seemed unorthodox, but they didn't bat an eyelash. They liked the idea, and they thought Louis would approve, since he liked to gamble" (Beam 181).
Reaction
I found this quote really interesting because the Nursing home that Louis was supposed to be sent to and the McLean hospital were basically betting on his life. If he was to live or die in a certain amount of time, one of them would get a lot of money while the other would lose. It almost seems like the importance is not of Louis's sanity or his survival. Its just about getting money. The book doesn't mention how many years it was after this proposition was made that he died, nor did they mention who gained a lot of money from his death. It only mentioned that McLean was trying to obtain as much of that money as they could. I was also wondering if after they formed this idea, if they cared for Louis differently. Does this mean that employees of the McLean hospital stopped giving him certain medication that he needed so that he would die within that year and they could get the money? Or likewise with the Nursing home he was sent to when they took care of him? They could have made it seem like they really wanted to help him when they're trying to keep him alive, or quicken his death, because of their own greed. After all earlier in the book it did mention the weakness of those in McLean hospital of being greedy, only thinking about getting more money. I also found it interesting that they thought Louis would approve of this gamble, since gambling is his favorite thing. They never actually said that they mentioned this idea to him, so I was wondering if Louis even knew about it. And if he did, if he actually did approve of it. It wouldn't make sense to me if he did because he's betting on his own life as well, and no matter who wins, he won't obtain any of the benefit money.
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