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Woman on the Edge of Time

Page 43

by Marge Piercy


  Escape Report: After a fight with another patient on the ward, causing mild concussion, this patient wandered out of the hospital and was lost in the woods for two whole nights and days. She was recovered in a bus station in Fairview very confused and uncertain where she was trying to go. She was covered with mosquito bites. It was decided to place her on close supervision … .

  From New York Neuro-Psychiatric Institute Notes: This 37-year-old female did not appear to have any motor difficulties. The patient appears to have learned to walk and talk at the normal time. Sent to Texas for birth records. Patient was delivered by midwife. No definite documentation of premature birth or birth traumas. History of blackouts and violent episodes in which patient felt as if she couldn’t control herself.

  … Mr. Camacho is a well-dressed man (gray business suit) who appears to be in his 40’s. He operates a wholesale-retail nursery and has a confident, expansive manner. I would consider him to be a reliable informant who expresses genuine concern for his sister … .

  LIST OF PROBLEMS AND TREATMENT PLANS

  Repeated hospitalizations

  Psychotic sy

  Episodic violence

  Lack of insight

  Lack of motivation

  Toothache

  Cracked rib

  Negativism

  ORIENTED: Fully oriented

  REMOTE MEMORY: Intact

  RECENT MEMORY: Slightly impaired

  RETENTION AND IMMEDIATE RECALL: Intact

  COUNTING AND CALCULATIONS: Impaired (mistake in serial 7’s)

  READING: Read with ease

  SCHOOLING AND GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: Commensurate.

  Claims to have 2 yrs college? Welfare records indicate only 1 yr., 3 mths. in community college.

  INTELLIGENCE RATING: Average

  COURSE OF MENTAL ILLNESS: Deteriorative process

  ABSTRACTING ABILITY: Impaired

  ABILITY TO MAINTAIN SET OR ASSOCIATIVE: Intact

  … After the implantation patient was markedly better with no episodes for two months. Symptoms then recurred. Amygdalotomy indicated but not carried out because of incident … .

  There were one hundred thirteen more pages. They all followed Connie back to Rockover.

  Don’t miss this novel from the author

  of Braided Lives, The Longings of Women,

  and Gone to Soldiers!

  CITY OF DARKNESS,

  CITY OF LIGHT

  by

  Marge Piercy

  Paris is set to explode at the dawn of the

  French Revolution, and three very different

  women prepare for their roles in one of the

  most tumultuous turning points in

  European History.

  CITY OF DARKNESS, CITY OF LIGHT

  by Marge Piercy

  Published by Ballantine Books.

  Available in bookstores everywhere.

  A Fawcett Book

  Published by The Random House Publishing Group

  Copyright © 1976 by Marge Piercy

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Fawcett Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  Fawcett is a registered trademark and the Fawcett colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

  www.ballantinebooks.com

  eISBN: 978-0-307-75639-8

  This edition published by arrangment with Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

  All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Selection of The Woman Today Book Club, November 1976

  Collection of Mrs. Edwin A. Bergman, Chicago

  v3.0

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Other Books by this Author

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Copyright

 

 

 


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