we'll never know
he lived a century ago
and mostly we know what he wrote up
individual cases
persons
unable to cope with what
people around them
knew as the real world
those persons each
had invented a world of her own
a world she understood
in which she was no more misunderstood
than in her friends' real one
some of us now say
he got his diagnoses wrong
fitting each one into
the same box he had made
I do not know
have not the training
but admire
that patient listening
that listening and waiting
for each patient to talk herself
into a new and realer world
a world her friends could live
more comfortably in
and he could shake her hand
stop listening
and work at fitting her story
among so many others
and make sense of them
of what we do and think
to find some kindness in our worlds
some understanding
that we are happier with
than even patient listening
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