The fundamental question that encircles the whole practice of psychiatry
Mary (identifying information changed) was extremely pleasant, to say the least.
By the time I met her on the senior unit, she had seemingly befriended even the orneriest of our geriatric patients. She wandered and danced about the unit, speaking with each fellow patient she encountered in a style one nurse called “cheerfully mad.”
Her strategy, maximalist and crude but stunningly effective, was to talk your ear off in a joyful stream …