The Dinosaur Man: Tales of Madness and Enchantment from the Back Ward
Susan Baur. 203 pp
Edward Burlingame Books, Harper Collins Publishers, New York. 1991
ISBN 0-06-016538-3
Susan Baur is a psychologist who spent several years in a mental hospital working on her doctoral dissertation. She hypothesized that schizophrenic patients have more difficulty than nonschizophrenic controls in distinguishing memories of fantasies from memories of real events.
To prove this she gave both types of subjects a list of words and asked them to read some of the words silently (the equivalent of a fantasy) and some of them aloud (the equivalent of a real event). The subjects then had to remember which words they had read silently and which words they had read aloud. Not surprisingly, she found that the schizophrenic patients could not recall as well the words they had read silently.
I did not find this research particularly enlightening. However, I did find some of the author’s other observations interesting. For example, she describes in detail her experiences with a paranoid schizophrenic patient who believed himself to be a dinosaur (hence the title of the book). He wanted to be understood but felt that giving away secrets and rediscovering the past was extremely dangerous. In her work with this man he became able to switch in and out of his delusional world with greater ease and, in turn, received more respect from the staff and from other patients. Baur’s work apparently had a similar impact on other patients.
Schizophrenic patients constitute roughly 1% of the population. In the current era of psychopharmacology and behaviour therapy many are discharged into the community. Psychiatrists who do not restrict themselves to prescribing medications prefer doing psychotherapy with patients in whom the expected results are better than in patients with schizophrenia. It is not a matter of chance that the author of this book is a psychologist.
I believe that family physicians who attempt psychotherapy with schizophrenic patients and who are realistic about the expected results will find their work rewarding. For these physicians and for others who are interested this book provides as much knowledge about the psychotherapy of schizophrenia as they need.