Frieda

Frieda

Frieda, a single, mildly to moderately retarded forty five year old lady entered my office sobbing. Her sobs waxed and waned but never went away during our hour together.  She was leaning on the shoulder of her older sister, Edith, who was gently leaning back, trying with each lock step to console her with soft supportive words.  It was the sister who had arranged for an early emergency appointment explaining that she for many years she had acted as the unofficial guardian and protector for her sister and that she needed help now. 

With support and occasional prompts from her loving sister, Frieda did her best to describe the problem that had led to her coming to see me.  She had been arrested for shoplifting at a local department store the day previously.  She had acted impulsively and was now overwhelmed with guilt. She had never done anything like this before and was sure she would never do something like this again. Naively and concretely her story unfolded. She had purchased a blouse that had been offered at a sale price at the store a few days previously. After wearing it only once she washed it. It faded and shrank to the point that she could not get into it.  She returned it to the store and was told that because it was purchased on sale no refund was available.  She was angry and it was while in the midst of her anger that she spotted a piece of cheap jewelry. It was at this moment that she decided that it would only be fair for her to take it and make things even.  Her theft was observed and the arrest soon followed.

But there was more.  Turned out that the two supportive influences in Frieda’s life were her sister and her church.  She belonged to a fundamentalist sect and had not missed a service, whether on a Sunday or during the week. in the last 25 years.  Much of her self-esteem was derived from the things she had done for the congregation to which they had responded by honoring her as one of their special members.  Unfortunately, this same congregation was not long on tolerance when one of their members engaged in behaviors outside the morals of the group. And now the core reason for her coming to see me came to light.  Her arrest was to be published in the paper and it was likely that one or more of her fellow worshipers would read it. Once her transgression was known it was almost certain that she would be ostracized by these most important people in her life.

The more I listened the more impressed I became with the genuineness of Frieda’s account. I could see how she would react in the child like way she had.  My sympathy for her was probably even further enhanced by what I viewed as the intolerance practiced by some fundamentalist religions.

I quickly reviewed the biopsychosocial approach to diagnosis we like to propagate in the practice of psychiatry.  The idea is to treat that which is most changeable.  Biologically she was retarded.  Could I change that?  Psychologically she was unsophisticated. Her problem was clearly social and it was here that an adjustment could make things better.

I called the newspaper and talked to the editor. I gave him an abbreviated version of what had happened with Frieda and told him that it was my best medical opinion that publishing Frieda’s name and what she had been arrested for would seriously impact her life in a devastatingly negative way.  I colored this with a description of how guilty she already felt and what I saw as the fact that she could no longer have a reasonably meaningful life without the support of the group that would almost certainly shun her should her name be published.  After initially saying this was not possible, he agreed to let her remain anonymous. 

She and her sister left the office feeling much better.  I felt good about myself, having saved a kind and needy soul from more condemnation than she deserved and in so doing having allowed her to live the rest of her years with less feelings of guilt and the continued support of her church.

Three months later the same newspaper published an account of two sisters who allegedly had been involved in a series of shoplifting episodes in local stores.  One had acted as the lookout person and the other had done the actual stealing.  On this occasion the sister, Frieda, who was the lookout, had decided to get a piece of the action.  She had done so clumsily and they were caught. This is most likely what had happened on the occasion prior to the time I had seen her in the office and. as it turns out, got her and her sister off the hook. 

2007