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Thursday, April 18, 2013

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Case 4: The Perfect Ending




                There are always moments that stand out throughout every individual’s career. For some people it’s getting the most sales in a year, or winning the company softball game. Unlike most people, I am not very proud of my most memorable moment. I honestly wish I could forget it all together.
                I’ve dealt with many murders and suicides in my life, but the death of Jerry stuck out more than anyone. I’d been meeting with Jerry for regular psychological check-ups for a few weeks. When Jerry first started coming to his appointments he seemed very humbled and scared. Right off the bat he told me that he had just lost his job as a writer, and his fiancĂ©e left him. Immediately I knew he was most likely going to be suffering from depression. Everything in his life was spiraling downward. I could also tell by his appearance that he stopped taking care of himself. He couldn’t look me in the eye out of shame. His speech was very erratic and unemotional. Every single part of him screamed shame and sadness. Every part of him screamed depression.
                I started conversing with him and I asked a simple, but very important question.
“Where do you find happiness through this tough situation?”
                His answer was simple and straight forward. He loved and found happiness in writing stories. The more I talked to him the less and less we discussed anything else but making stories! Every time we meet it became a show and tell of what he had wrote the past week. Since he seemed to be happy I ended the sessions, thinking he was going to be ok.
                I had never been more wrong in my life. About 3 weeks after our last session Jerry came storming in yelling that he had made the perfect story. It was about his day at the zoo. He simply called it, “The Zoo Story.” He wanted me to help him write an ending to what he said was his masterpiece, but I said no. I asked him to please go home several times, but he started to became so desperate to talk that he eventually started getting angry and putting his hands on me. I had to call security to get him out of my office. That was the last time I saw Jerry alive.
                Two days later I got a call from the Chief, he said that they had a guy named Peter come in claiming that he had just helped somebody named Jerry commit his own suicide. I dropped my phone to the ground in disbelief. I felt guilty and disgusted, but I got over it quickly and headed back to work to interview Peter.
                I interviewed Peter and he told me about Jerry telling him a story called “The Zoo Story”. Peter said Jerry got upset when he thought Peter wasn’t acting interested. So Jerry pulled out a knife and handed it to Peter. Before Peter could even move Jerry thrust himself upon the knife and said these final words, “Thank you, Peter. I mean that, now; thank you very much.”
                I got a warrant and went to Jerry’s house. When I walked in all I saw was a single desk and chair with a bunch of paper on top. I walked over to the desk and in big bold letters on the front of the stack of papers were the words “The Zoo Story”. I flipped to the very back and read the last page. I was astonished by what I read. The last page read of the main character committing assisted suicide by knife. Jerry had ended his life the way he had ended his masterpiece. With what he thought was the perfect ending.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Case 3: Distrust, Disgust.


             Photo Credit
             “Gertrude, you're denying it but you know in your heart I'm right. You know it's an unhealthy relationship.”, I said.

             “You don't know anything. There is nothing wrong with me. I am not that terrible of a person. Hes my son!”, Gertrude pleaded.

             “I'm sorry, but he has already admitted to it. Gertrude. . . just admit it. You are in an unhealthy relationship with your son Hamlet. It's no longer just motherly love. It's intimate love that you have for him, and he for you.”, I said regretfully.

              This was one of many discussions I had with Gertrude and Hamlet. I can honestly say that I've learned more from this one case than any other in my career. The three things prevalent throughout every interview and interrogation were denial, disgust, and disbelief. It wasn't simply two people interacting in a manner that was unethical. Now don't get me wrong, they were aware of what was going on, but only Hamlet knew of the extent it was going. Something in his mind made it okay for him to approach his mother in this way. It had to have been something significant to cause him to override his mind's normal values system. I put all my effort into finding out why this happened to him.

              From what I gathered, Hamlet was never very trusting in women. He always thought that most were untrustworthy and saw them as betraying. Of all the woman in his life, his mother disappointed him the most. He was extremely perplexed about why she got over his fathers death so quickly, and why she was already engaged to someone else. In his mind she didn't seem to care about her husband. He felt that she was completely fine with him being dead. The thought of loving someone else was impossible to him. Incidentally, he started having feelings for her. Instead of seeing her as his mom, he started seeing her as an equal and a confused woman. He started to sympathize with her, which in turn started the process of falling in love with her. Even though she disappointed him, she was really one of the only women to consistently be there for him, and take care of him. It may seem odd to most, as it should, but being a physiologist I was able to stay neutral and understanding through the whole situation and eventually helped Hamlet see that what he was feeling was wrong. As for Gertrude, she really couldn't get over the fact that she could possibly have feeling for her son. That alone helped her to get through the disgust of the situation.

              In the end Hamlet, Gertrude, and myself learned a good life lesson that we all need to remember and take to heart. Our brain is the decision making part of our body, but only our heart can determine whether something is morally right or not. “If you have a pure heart, then you will have a pure mind. Simple as that.” - Dr. Seize.

Thursday, February 21, 2013



Case 2: Dependence > Independence.

                              When I decided to become a Psychologist, it was because of one thing. The beauty of the human mind. I became infatuated with the complexity and beauty. What fascinated me more than anything else was the fragility of the brain. This is why the case of The Yellow Wallpaper appealed to me. The case was simple, yet oh so complicated. Since there were only two people involved in the case there wasn't much evidence to go on, but in the end we found out the real story. This is my diary for the case of The Yellow Wallpaper.

Day 1
                              Right when Jane walked in you could tell by her demeanor that she wasn't all there. Her eyes shot back and forth, she walked with a slight limp, and her hands steadily moved in an odd slow circular motion. The policemen set her up in the interrogation room and informed me that she was ready. I looked over the case file one more time, took a deep breath, and walked in.

                              “Good morning Jane, my name is Dr. Seize. How are you feeling today?”, I asked. “. . . Help . . .”, she replied in a soft voice. I asked a few more questions, but she never said another word. So I excused myself and headed to the evidence room, grabbed a piece of the torn yellow wallpaper, and walked back in. We sat there quietly for a few more minutes, then I slide the paper carefully across the table. She immediately grabbed the paper and started yelling, “ I'll save you, I'll save you!” She started sniffing and looking at the wallpaper, whispering something under her breath that I couldn't understand. “Who are you trying to save ma'am? This room is completely secure.”, I said calmly. “No, no, no. . . .she needs help!!! Shes trapped!!! Shes TRAPPED!!!”, yelling at the top of her lungs. Something serious happened to this poor lady, and I wasn't going to stop til I found out.

Day 2
                               Today was a pivotal day in the case. They were bringing in Jane's husband, who was the only other person to influence Jane, for questioning. When I got into the interrogation room, I couldn’t help but feel as though the room felt empty. I turned around after shutting the door and there sat her husband quiet as could be, but starring straight at me. “Good morning sir or should I say doctor, how are you this morning?”, I asked as I always do. “I'm in a police station getting questioned, so not to good.”, he replied. “That's what I like to here! So lets get this story straight. From what I read in the report, you kept your wife in a solitary room for the entire day?”, I asked. “That's exactly what I did, she had a problem with interacting with people so I put her in a place were she could be alone.”, he fired back quickly. “I don't mean to be insulting, but that is the complete opposite of what your suppose to do. She has nervous depression, which can get serious real quick! If she is constantly locked up in a room, she will just get worse! Do you even know what nervous depression is? I've been a psychologist for a long while sir, but this is the first time I've ran into a doctor who told his patient, in this case YOUR WIFE, to be in a solitary room because she has nervous depression. It only makes things worse.”, I exclaimed angrily. “Well that's what I did. I can't go back in time and change what I did. She seemed happy in that room and never wanted to come out. It was all OK until yesterday when I walked in and all the wallpaper had been torn off, and she was just sitting there ripping the paper even smaller and yelling something about “she needs to be free.”, he continued, “I passed out from the horror I walked into!”, he said in a very noticeably uncaring manner.
                                I was done for the day. I was becoming too emotionally involved, I needed to step away for a while.

Day 3
                   The next day I started off the interview with a different change of pace. “Alright sir, lets face facts. We both know that you are going to jail with a charge for manipulating a helpless woman, but I'm not finished with you yet. There's more to this story than meets the eye. There might not be any evidence as of now, but you and me both know that there is no way that your wife would have mentally broken down that quickly by just being in a solitary room. You did something to her, and I will not sleep til I find out what that is.”, I slowly said trembling with anger. His face hardened, his eyes got wide, and his nostrils flared like bull. He stood up ever so slowly, looked up with the deadest eyes I had ever seen, and whispered...

“Good Luck.”

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Case 1. The Misfit.


                     

                    “We've been at this for hours Bobby. The whole department is completely stalled on this case until you decide to cooperate. I'm going to give you an ultimatum. . . either you open up to me right now, or I'll turn you over to F.B.I. You need to forget all the lies and manipulation he put in your head. He used his deranged mind to corrupt yours.”, I firmly stated. “No. . . you don't understand. You think The Misfit is dangerous because he's mentally deranged, well I'm sorry to disappoint you Dr. Seize, but the reason I'm afraid of him isn't because he's mentally deranged; it's because he's completely sane.”, replied Bobby Lee.
                      
                    This could not be possible I keep thinking to myself. A man with such a violent past, and now with five more counts of cold-blooded murder couldn't possibly be sane. This was my first case as a Forensic Psychologist and already I'm up against the mind of a murderer who is completely aware of the disgusting acts he's committed. Needless to say, I threw up several times due to the reality of the situation I was in. I was expecting to start off with a few suicides or maybe some accidental man-slaughters, but to be thrown into the fire on my first case with a mass murderer was truly stressful.

                  “Just to make things clear, we already have you booked on first degree murder and manslaughter, so you have nothing to lose. The Misfit has no control over you anymore. So let's start off simple. Why did you three decide to stop at the car on the side of the road?”, I calmly asked. “. . . . Alright I'll talk, but I'm going to say this once and only once. We were going along that road to stop at a diner I used to go to as a kid, when we came up on the car. At first I thought we were just going to help them out of the ditch and let them on their way, but then the old coot recognized The Misfit. Hiram and I started to move slowly back to the car, but right as we were about to open the car door, he told us to take the two kids into the woods. You guys know that part, but what you don't know is what was talked about in the car hours before.”, said Bobby in a very defeated manner.

                    I could clearly see his eyes starring blankly at the floor. While he was talking, his lips barely moved in a way that only a regretful murder could portray. This guy was telling the truth, no doubt about it, but something didn't seem right. Something about the way he said things didn't sit very well with me. The more and more he talked, the better I understood why I was feeling this way. I didn't jump to conclusions quite yet. I needed to hear about what happened in the car that Bobby was so adamant about not telling me.

                   “The sooner you tell me, the sooner we all go home. . . well, everyone but you. No matter what you say or do, your going to go to jail for a very long time. So let's hear about what happened in the car before the incident.”, I said as stern as I possibly could. “He threatened us both. He said he would slaughter our families if we ever spoke a word or didn't do what he said. That's pretty good motivation to follow him in everything he says. We tried countless times to run away or even kill him, but every time we failed miserably. We we're idiots, and he made sure we knew that. We were his puppets. We were his slaves.”, Bobby calmly said.

                 My mouth began to quiver, my heart sank, and my palms moistened. While he was talking, I noticed something that made my mind go completely numb.

He smirked.

                  Even though it was ever so subtle and discrete, I saw it plain as day. As he uttered the word “slaves” his upper lip arched in a way that expressed joy and jubilation. I briskly, yet silently, exited the interrogation room and shut the door behind me. I walked along the hallways up to the third floor to the Chief of Police's office. As I walked into his office, our eyes meet in disbelief.

                 “What's the matter Chief?”, I asked. He handed me the file he held firmly in his hand. I opened it to the first page and immediately dropped it to the floor. The Chief stood up and calmly said, “Bobby Lee was found dead this morning with Hiram at side. Dr. Seize. . . the man you have been interviewing for the past 6 hour isn't Bobby Lee. It's Bobby Lee's twin brother Thor, otherwise known as The Misfit.”

                   My inclinations had become reality. The Misfit knew he was already caught. All he wanted to do was brag one more time.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

A Little About The Seize.


                        Hello my name is Seize TheThrone, I am a world renown Psychologist. I graduated top of my class from the New York University. I am most famous for my ability to help humanize some of the most mentally deranged people in the world. While helping the living with their many problems is my specialty, I have decided to try my skills as a Psychologist for the not so fortunate, in the field of Forensic Psychology. I received an invitation from the San Diego Crime Unit to be their main Forensic Psychologist. I made this blog to let you follow me step by step as I go through this amazing experience. I am interested in this field because of the opportunity to actually go to crime scene and try to walk through, and try to depict what was going through the murderer and victim's heads as the incident happened. Being able to catch a criminal by using the Psychiatric brain God gave me would be my greatest accomplishment. Follow me as I go through this incredible experience.

God Bless.