Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Psychopaths Dream in Black and White..

In this chapter, Jon Ronson researched and reviewed all of the ways psychopaths could be "cured," mainly under the care of Elliot Baker. Elliot Barker used Paul Bindrim's concept of nude psychotherapy to strip the psychopaths both physically and emotionally. Baker used LSD in the first marathon nude psychotherapy session, where the patients became each others psychiatrists. When Baker took a leave of absence, a hippie named Gary Maier came in and took over, but was eventually asked to leave. It was believed that they were gentle psychopaths conspiring to spoil everything, while the psychiatrists were conspiring to spoil everything. Psychopaths are born the way they are, they dream in black and white, and generally they can't truly be cured.
I was very bewildered by this chapter. It confused me, but at the same time I found it to be quite interesting. Although I find the idea of naked psychotherapy very bizarre, I think it has really makes sense. If someone can be stripped down, it makes them a lot more vulnerable. I also found it pretty crazy to know Gary Maier now lives somewhere in Madison! A quote I saw in the reading caught my attention, "They're your personal property and you make them dance for you." This quote was about Elliot Barker's involvement in his treatment of the psychopath, but I think it struck me because of how true it is. It angered me a bit to see that these rapists and killers were let back into society after being "cured," as most of them went out to re-offend. I think if they're going to be let back out, they should all go to a place like Elliot's farm where they're able to live normal healthy lives without affecting others. Overall, I really liked this chapter! :)