Me: I think there’s a lot of trauma he has to process
Dr. K: Did something happen?!
—“Medical History #2,” The Bearable Slant of Light
In the first intake documents from my son’s first hospitalization, the attending psychiatrist wrote: “On examination, the patient presents as a very poor historian.” In other words, he couldn’t tell a coherent and accurate story of what had happened that had led him to bolt from the therapist’s office that July afternoon and subsequently be transported to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
Even now, ten years later, it is not clear that he is yet able to tell that story that reflects his truth about what his life is and will be.