{"id":504,"date":"2003-10-01T16:31:41","date_gmt":"2003-10-01T23:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hub.wsu.edu\/andersen\/?p=504"},"modified":"2019-06-14T16:56:22","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T23:56:22","slug":"psychiatrist-and-boy-switch-roles-a-follow-up-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hub.wsu.edu\/andersen\/2003\/10\/01\/psychiatrist-and-boy-switch-roles-a-follow-up-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychiatrist and Boy Switch Roles: A Follow-up Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Kelly Dobbs<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Pullman psychiatrist finds the motives behind a 17-year-old\u2019s mysterious act of violence, and discovers some of the same motives within himself.<\/p>\n

Alan Strang, a Pullman High School student, was sent to psychiatrist Martin Dysart after he blinded six horses with a metal spike last month. It was a case that shocked the country, but in the aftermath, Dysart himself was the most shocked of all.<\/p>\n

Strang was sent to the long-time child psychologist on the suggestion of Judge Hesther Salomon, who said that anyone else would have been too shocked and horrified to handle such a case. Salomon described how other doctors would react to such a case.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, they\u2019ll be cool and exact,\u201d Salomon said. \u201cAnd underneath they\u2019ll be revolted, and immovably English. Just like my bench\u201d (19).<\/p>\n

Dysart himself was not quite as confident in himself when the case first arrived. He said he expected very little to come from the Strang case.
\n\u201cOne more dented little face. One more adolescent freak. The usual unusual. One great thing about being in the adjustment business: you\u2019re never short of customers\u201d (21).<\/p>\n

Needless to say, Dysart was quite troubled when he realized that this \u201cadolescent freak\u201d and himself have more in common than one might imagine.<\/p>\n

Dysart began where every good child psychologist does: with the parents. Dysart said he had an idea of the type of people Frank and Dora Strang were before he ever met them. Alan\u2019s actions suggested a religious and oppressive upbringing; however not uncommon by any means, Dysart said.<\/p>\n

Frank Strang proved to be the stricter of the two. He believed in society and its ability to become better, Dysart said. Thus, he would not allow Alan to watch television for fear that it would stunt his mental growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cRelentlessly self-improving,\u201d as Dysart described him (28).
\nNora Strang put her beliefs and her hope in religion instead. She believed that that was the only law or discipline the boy needed to know, Dysart said.<\/p>\n

The Strang\u2019s lived by two different sets of laws, both laws set up by society, and very conflicting with one another in Alan\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

Dysart said it reminded him of a couple he met with a few years back, Torvald and Nora Helmer. While Torvald believed in the laws set by government above all else, Nora believed that the laws set within oneself, dictated by love and emotion, overrides those set by government. The signals were also too confusing then, and Nora left her husband and children.<\/p>\n

Dysart said he was surprised to discover that he too is part of a destructive relationship such as these. Dysart and his wife live on two different realms of what is important, just as the Helmers do and just as the Strang\u2019s do.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know what it\u2019s like for two people to live in the same house as if they were in different parts of the world? Mentally, she\u2019s always in some drizzly kirk of her own inheriting: and I\u2019m in some Doric temple \u2013 clouds tearing through pillars \u2013 eagles bearing prophecies out of the sky. She finds all that repulsive\u201d (62).<\/p>\n

These couples are living together as one, and yet as far apart in beliefs as strangers, as many couples do. Alan Strang sensed that in his own household, Dysart said.<\/p>\n

Another shocking similarity, Dysart said, were the concurrent nightmares of Alan and Dysart. While he never learned specifics, Dysart did discover through Alan\u2019s parents that he was dreaming about the horse \u201cEquus\u201d \u2013 Alan\u2019s God.
\nDysart, similarly, said he was dreaming about his God, Greece, and yet in his own dream, Dysart almost was the God. When one places that much power in themselves, as Dysart did in his dream, there is the fear of failing. Dysart felt that fear in his dream as he fought to hold back nausea.<\/p>\n

Many people try to be their own God, it seems. They worship nothing \u2013 except themselves and their own abilities, and yet that leaves so much room for failure, as in Dysart\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

Which lead him to his final and most unnerving conclusion, Dysart said, which was that Alan had what Dysart wanted \u2013 something to worship. Dysart thought his wife was the worshipless one, when he says:
\n\u201cIf I had a son, I bet you he\u2019d come out exactly like his mother. Utterly worshipless\u201d (62).<\/p>\n

Dysart thought he worshipped Greece, until he met Alan who really worshipped something, with his whole self, and Dysart said he realized that that is what he was missing. And Alan knows this. Alan should be the psychiatrist, because Dysart is the one missing something, Dysart said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the Accusation! That\u2019s what his stare has been saying to me all this time. \u2018At least I galloped! When did you?\u2019 \u2026 I\u2019m jealous Hesther. Jealous of Alan Strang\u201d (82).<\/p>\n

The Pullman psychiatrist was disturbed to discover that he and Alan Strang were so similar. The motives that lie within this violent boy also lie within an accomplished child-psychologist. And within everyone, Dysart said, but everyone is not as passionate and strong as Alan Strang, so we keep those things hidden. Dysart must bring Alan back into the world of normalcy that Dysart himself has come to hate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll give him the good Normal world where we\u2019re tethered beside them \u2013 blinking our nights away in a non-stop drench of cathode-ray over our shrivelling heads! I\u2019ll take away his field of Ha Ha, and give him Normal places for his ecstasy \u2013 multi-lane highways driven through the guts of cities, extinguishing Place altogether, even the idea of Place!\u201d (108).<\/p>\n

\n

By: Kelly Dobbs<\/strong>
\nExpected graduation date: May 2005
\nMajor: English, Journalism
\nHometown: Lake Chelan, WA<\/p>\n

As an English major, I write a ton of papers. Too often the required format is very structured and I have very little freedom. With this paper, I took advantage of the freedom to be creative, and had a great time writing it. You can learn so many new things simply by looking at a text from a totally different perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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