Today I led a group therapy session. It was a positively surreal experience. Picture Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys, Michael Duncan from the Green Mile, Mrs. Bennett from Pride and Predjudice, the town drunk from any old Western, one relatively normal person (we'll call her Kristin Scott Thomas from the English Patient), two doctors and a medical student (yours truly) all sitting down for an hour-long discussion of our feelings. Well, mostly the patient's feelings. In that millieu, we had Mrs. Bennett accuse Michael of fathering Kristin's baby, Michael go on an anti-Catholic rant, and Brad Pitt started asking if he was in the psych ward because of the people he had killed. As far as I know, Brad hasn't killed anyone, and Kristin is definitely not involved with Michael. It was actually funny at times though. I felt bad for Kristin, because she's actually pretty much recovered from a relatively minor problem, and she definitely feels out of place as a participant and not a facilitator of such a group. It may be wrong, but sometimes the only way to react to the crazy things patients say is to laugh, of course well after you have left them. I also think one of the most reassuring feelings in the world is sitting in a group like that, but shifting in your chair and feeling the friendly poke of the key to the door in your pocket.