From Dr. O’Hare notes:
Thomas Pipkin arrived at Holy Cross Asylum on July 22, 1968. When they found him, he had scooped out his eyes with a spoon, nearly bled to death on his apartment floor. I’d like to say that he is doing better, but I don’t think he’ll ever get better.
He is broken. If he isn’t muttering incoherent nonsense to himself, he is screaming, shouting at nurses, or pounding his fists on everything, including staff. When he arrived, they sewed his eyelids shut, because he kept sticking his fingers inside. This agitated him so much that he would scream for hours until they sedated him. They also had to heavily bandage his eyes so he wouldn’t rip out the sutures. They sutured him several times!
Our investigations found that he mutilated himself shortly after a disagreement with a Beverly Rose. He was infatuated with her and started stalking her. Long story short, this is a case of unrequited love. He was so affected by this (as he and I have discussed in our talks) “treachery,” that he mutilated himself. Now when he thinks about her, he can’t stop screaming… The best the nurses can do is “hush” him or inject him with more drugs…
I’ve been in his shoes… I think most men have. The goal is to accept things as they are and move on. Some can’t. Some scoop out their eyeballs. Me? I took to drinking. Nothing wipes the memories of her like a bottle of whiskey. I keep a flask in my desk.
Thomas Pipkin is now under my care. I listen to him when he wants to talk. Like I said, he is a man who usually mutters or screams, but when I do get him to talk, it’s only me, Dr. Ketch, and Pipkin himself. He couldn’t handle group therapy. He shouted over everyone and eventually would go off with the most earsplitting noises. It wasn’t productive, so it was time to move to a more solitary form of therapy.
We gave him a notebook; I don’t know if that was a good idea or not. He doesn’t write in it, which was the initial intent. He just draws. They’re exquisite drawings, but they’re also very disturbing. I’m not a God-fearing man, but his artistry is down-right demonic looking. He draws “sigils,” and, according to Pipkin, they all seem to have some sort of otherworldly effect, most of which is a desire of control upon the world.
Dr. Ketch is fascinated by it. I’m more conservative. We shouldn’t be encouraging his delusions, we should be bringing him back to reality, no matter how long it takes us. I have half a mind to take his notebook away, but, and once again I’m not a God-fearing man, his notebook has an energy of its own. It makes my hair stand on end. The best way to describe it is like watching one of those horrific moving pictures, with the monsters… But more disturbing.
To watch him is hypnotic. He has no ability to see, except for his imagination, and yet he contrives these symbols effortlessly as if his hands themselves were possessed.
This is all I have for now. We are about to start our session. I hope to take as good of notes as I can.
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