Visions of Hell - Elaine

"You've all heard of the world's angriest man, no doubt.  And we all have met extremely angry men, usually middle aged with drinking problems.  But the case we're going to study over these next few weeks, is, well, unlike anything you can imagine."  Professor Browning Dealey was the professor of psychology at Unkile University, and was addressing his third year psychology students.

"This case is about an eleven year old girl, we'll call Elaine.  Literally from birth, Elaine was angry.  And her anger typically manifested itself in violence."  Her parents brought her to me after several years of painful, embarrassing and even dangerous situations.  The final straw, for them, was when Elaine killed their cat, during one of her fits of rage.  It is unfortunate that they allowed the situation to progress to such a place.

The three of them arrived to my office and our initial dialogue was pleasant enough and she seemed like a fairly typical child.  I instructed the little girl in how to see anger as a tiger attacking her and she could run away from it instead of allowing it to control her.  I then initiated a test situation to instigate some anger, but, oddly enough, the anger passed as quickly as it arose.  The transition was patently visible and a great relief to everyone present.  My only words to Elaine were, "That's good Elaine, well done." The interview finished without further incident and the family left.  I was intrigued and deeply troubled.  I did hope that her parents would see that her anger was a choice and she could overcome it with help and direction.

The next time I saw Elaine was a week later, immediately following a telephone call from the police.  Elaine had undergone an episode, but this time, she was at the grocery store with her mother.  The checker had failed to offer young Elaine a sticker upon checkout.  Elaine exploded and the police were called, but not before Elaine attacked the checker, the bag boy and the manager.  The bag boy fared the worst, with a broken nose.

My support in the situation consisted of a professional diagnosis and a lengthy discussion with the parents.  Questions of demon possession, chemical imbalance and genetic disposition all came up.  Often times, these kinds of "answers" only result in the patient being seen as a victim and not responsible for her actions.  The only viable option among these three was that of genetic disposition, which I leaned towards, but only on the grounds of responsibility.  In other words, it very well could be that Elaine is predisposed towards anger, but this does not excuse her for her actions.  I told the parents that Elaine needed to make a choice each time.  Their responsibility lies in directing her to make that conscious choice each time.  She must not see herself as a victim.

Unfortunately, they disagreed with me.  The last time I heard anything from the family was last fall.  Elaine had been to every "expert" including priests, witch doctors, Faith healers and hypnotists.  Nothing had worked and Elaine spent six months as a patient at Western State, regularly drifting from stability to psychosis and back, only to return to the same situation at home. Her parents refused to see Elaine as having any responsibility for her actions.  In short, they did exactly the opposite of what I recommended.

Sadly enough, there is no happy end to this story.  Elaine would be eighteen this year.  I say would be because at the age of sixteen, Elaine ran away and disappeared.  Her parents received no word from her and exhausted all possible avenues for finding her.  Her body was found in the woods outside of town, apparently bludgeoned to death.  I would guess the assault was a response to Elaine's explosive anger.

Dr. Dealey paused and looked out upon the faces of his students.  The faces displayed a combination of horror and disbelief.  "I want to open the floor for discussion.  Does anyone have any ideas on how this case could have been handled differently?"