our patients are a pretty crazy bunch. they exhibit a variety of behaviours and say the strangest things. they have psychotic attacks where they see aliens or dwarves or camels (yes, camels!) in their rooms but these things tend to be episodic and controllable with the right meds and a groovy straitjacket.
now Mrs. E has presented with a condition I’ve not come across before. I don’t even think there’s a name for it as the closest thing I’ve found is eispotrophobia and she doesn’t quite fit that criteria.
as usual I was eating chocolate at my desk when Mrs. E came to register a complaint about the new woman who had moved in next door to her. nursemyra knows the layout of the Gimcrack like she knows her mind altering drugs. there is no new woman next door, her neighbour is male and he’s been there for months.
Mrs. E. would have none of it. she wanted a partition between her and this witless woman and she wanted it now. “I have tried and tried to be friends with her but she’s dull and has no conversation at all. she just repeats everything I say and copies everything I do. I show her things and she’ll reach out and touch them but that’s all she ever does. I don’t want her looking at me all the time if she’s not going to be friends.”
I accompany Mrs. E. to her room so we can confront this dull neighbour together. I think maybe when we both look in the mirror she’ll realise it’s her own image but that’s not the case. I tell her “It’s not another person, it’s you. you’re wearing the same clothes and doing the same things because it’s your reflection, not someone else.”
she’s not convinced. “are you sure? I thought I recognised the voice but…….” she keeps looking and says “that’s not me. I don’t look anything like that.” it seems futile to try to convince her otherwise so we tape newspaper over the bathroom mirror and drape a sheet across the reflecting wardrobe doors. she’s happy with this and as it didn’t tax my brain too much so am I.
but it must be a weird thing not to recognise yourself. not so long ago I saw the doco “Unknown White Male” about a man who came to realise that he had no idea who he was while travelling on a train to coney island. there didn’t seem to be an explanation as to how this happened and it’s just as mystifying as Mrs. E’s symtoms.
one day she seemed fairly normal and then the next day she wasn’t. but it happens here all the time. just another case of frontal lobe damage or early dementia or maybe a bad UTI.
So here’s the lesson for today: it’s probably a good idea to work hard at developing an interesting personality just in case you end up as your own doppelganger. personally I hope the camels get me first.
I still know it’s me in the mirror……………I wish Newton had never invented gravity though.
Have you ever read the book, The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat? It’s by Oliver Sacks. Wish you’d written it though.
DaddyP: oh I don’t look in mirrors any more. Before leaving the house I just check my makeup against a photo of me in my 20s. as for gravity, thigh high boots and a lace up corset pull everything in the right direction
Ian: Oliver Sacks is my hero. I take my hat off to him…
I’m thinking about printing and framing your final paragraph as a motivational quote. The resulting context-deprived camel reference really puts it over the top.
The other day while waiting for the Walk sign to change at the traffic lights, I realised that the chap next to me who was talking to someone, was actually talking to a someone who was not there. Then, in what must be one of the best concidences of my life, I saw a guy at the lights waiting to cross from the other side who was also talking to an imaginary friend.
I wondered if I introduced these two, would they talk to each other over dinner, or would they always end up booking a table for four?
In which case would there be lulls in the conversation while the imaginary friends talked among themselves?
RaJ: yes I do hope the camels get me first. It’s preferable to being nibbled to death by ducks
Anaglyph: your coincidence story left me speechless but my imaginary friend is still rolling on the floor laughing
[...] nursemyra attended a case conference for two of our wackier patients. We started off with Mrs. E who has a strange inability to recognise her own reflection. since we covered all the mirrors in [...]
[...] most readers by now are familiar with Mrs E, the patient who does not recognise her own reflection and complains her nemesis copies her movements, wears her clothes and never answers when spoken [...]
[...] you’ve been reading the gimcrack for a while you may remember Mrs. E, the patient who doesn’t recognise her own reflection in a mirror. after we removed the [...]
I have prosopagnosia (face blindness) and autism.
Donna Williams *)
until my 20s I thought the girl in the mirror livd in a mirror world and was secretly following me throughout my life. I wrote of her through four autobiographical works, the most well known of which is Nobody Nowhere. In my 20s, I finally discovered how to tell she wasn’t ‘real’ and was just reflection. But due to cognitive issues in holding more than 1 piece of info in conscious thought, I cognitively couldn’t hold onto the pieces of info involved in comprehending how reflection works. Essentially I was perceptually and cognitively stuck where small children and many animals are. Fortunately, I liked this ‘friend’. Once I understood she wasn’t real I went through grief as if I’d lost a life long friend but from it I became more social.
wow donna, I’ve just had a look at your website, you are one prolific woman!
I hope there is nothing in my story to offend you, have never met anyone with this condition before and found it quite puzzling.
incidentally, you may be interested in anaglyph’s (comment above) website as well. he is also a composer and artist as well as a blogger and my friend.
http://www.perpetualocean.com/