Stevie
This nine year old, very small boy had a total of thirteen sessions over a ten month period. Prior to treatment Stevie was extremely withdrawn and isolated and responded to no one. He vacillated between extreme catatonia and excited catatonic rage reactions. He would become assaultive and destructive and especially physically aggressive towards younger and more helpless children. During these times he had to be placed in camisole (full straight-jacket) and seclusion. He never spoke to anyone, made no eye contact and lived exclusively in his own world. What was unique about this boy's psychedelic experiences was his ability to enjoy sensory experiences that are commonly experienced by the normal person. During the first two hours he would delight in the visual and auditory experiences and constantly comment about what he was experiencing.
We soon discovered Stevie had an extensive vocabulary which he never used in his usual state. He would say such things as "the music is following the designs," he would laugh and say, "I love you, designs. Heart designs, ahhh, what a beautiful lady, a whole house full of changes." He rhythmically moved his body very gracefully to the music. He became extremely animated, smiling, sometimes giggling and appearing very much enchanted by his experiences. The long duration of this type of reaction was most unusual with these children. He would also become extremely quiet and peaceful, radiating a serene countenance that is witnessed when individuals are experiencing transcendental states. After the first few sessions he became very excited when told that he was going to have another session. He would run down to the treatment room and participate in preparing it by setting out the things that we would typically bring - fruit, cookies, flowers, pictures, record albums and so forth. When the room was set up he would take a wash cloth, dampen it with cool water, fold it and lay down on the couch and cover his eyes with it, a ritual we would frequently use in attempting to get patients to travel inwardly. He would then want the music started. He was acting like a typical normal person in preparing themselves for a session.
In the second phase he would exhibit intense turmoil, conflict, fear and agitation. He indulged in the entire gamut of behaviors and emotions, biting, spitting, profuse and prolonged swearing and extreme hyperactivity, destructiveness and total catatonic withdrawal. He would carry on extended dialogues between two or possibly more people, evidencing conflict between his mother, father and himself. There was a great deal of anal and genital content to his conversation, with endless repetitions about "shit, piss, penis, nasty, black BM, death, black hearts, throw up, black breasts, black diarrhea, chew it, afraid, burn it hurts." He would interrupt these dialogues by going to the bathroom, standing in front of the toilet, turning in a few circles and then urinating and when he ran out of urine he would continue this behavior twenty to twenty-five times. After an exhausting three to four hours he would appear very beaten up and would allow staff to sit with him, touch him and hold him, feed him and nurture him.
Touching moments would often occur with these small patients, near the end of one session a male sitter was sitting beside Stevie, holding his hand and Stevie opened his eyes and said, "Will you talk to me, David?," David said, "Yes Stevie" and after a moment said, "I don't know what to say?" to which Stevie replied, "Just talk to me with your eyes." This coming from a child who in his usual state was either catatonic or wildly destructive. Very often we had no idea how to interact with the children when they were obviously back in time wrestling with the demons of their pasts. They would be unaware of our presence and often the most we could do was to sit it out with them. Remarkable changes occurred with this boy. He started to relate to treatment staff and wanted to be touched and held. His manic and destructive behavior disappeared and he started relating to boys of his own age and older ones and struck up a bond with another boy on the program. They became good buddies. He became well enough to attend school and was able to function well in that setting. His parents were amazed at the changes and started to visit him and then began taking him home every weekend. He was very verbal, became very playful with the treatment staff and was behaving like a normal boy.
