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Chapter 3
Allan Memorial Institute of Psychiatry of the
McGill University (1966-67)
Allan Memorial Institute of Psychiatry provided me my new shelter of training-in
Community Psychiatry.
Albeit similar to my previous exposure, this program targeted crisis intervention
mostly in the homes of patients. Every visit was made by a team composed of a
psychiatric social worker, a psychiatric nurse, and myself, in taxis provided for
our convenience.
One of my most vivid memories from that brief sojourn is the striking
difference between my two colleagues: the nurse was more the theorist while the
social worker, who was from London, U.K., was more the pragmatist. I suppose I
was somewhere in-between the two in our approaches and dynamic formulations
of each case we encountered. Together, the three of us had an inordinate
exuberance, throughout this period. I have no doubt it reflected our different
backgrounds and training, and accounted for our comfortable and efficient
teamwork.
While engaged in community Psychiatry, I was also seeing patients in the
ward. There were two occasions I recall with great fascination that involved the
chairman of the Department of Psychiatry. The first happened when the staff in
the inpatient Psychiatric unit requested advice from the Chairman concerning a
patient who was "behaving like a canine"-walking on all fours and barking.
Upon seeing the patient, the Chairman imitated the presenting behavior of the
patient. While I am not clear about the details that transpired, I observed that soon
after this "approach," there was progressive improvement in the patient.
The second case occurred on a particular August night, while I was "on call."
A female patient phoned me at midnight with no specific complaints. When she
learned during the first few seconds that I was from China, she immediately began
to ramble on about the history of that country, giving what appeared to be a
discourse covering the early centuries to the present time. I was half listening,
trying to keep awake. I did not interrupt her because I was too tired and, more
importantly, my knowledge of ancient Chinese history was meager. After what
seemed like eternity, she thanked me and hung up.
A few days later, a colleague reported that he had a "savage encounter" with a
patient the night before, at midnight. She rang him about every 15 minutes. She
was the same patient, I soon learned, whom I had spoken with earlier. As it turned
out, her therapist was the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, then on
vacation-and the patient was a senior administrator of the University!
In addition to my encounters with patients and staff, a peculiar experience in
Montreal, at least for me, was to observe the estrangement between the French
speaking and English speaking Canadians. Within this bilingual context, I was
encouraged by the Institute to take French lessons, at no cost, but wondered why.
I presumed they thought this would facilitate my understanding of the nuances of
the languages spoken in Montreal. Although I realized the need to be aware of
each ethnic group's thinking and aspirations, I chose not to learn French, feeling
that I could get by well without it. I worked at holding my peace whenever I
encountered a hint of bias or partiality, involving patients or professionals.
Towards the end of my stay at the Allan Memorial Institute, I noticed a
gradual exodus of some of the English speaking staff of the University towards
Toronto, mainly the University of Toronto. Looking back on those times, perhaps
the exodus was heralding the French Separation Movement in Quebec that seems
so vibrant at this very moment.
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