What Did Eric Holder Know and When Did He Know It? Autobiography

January 23, 1996
3801 Connecticut Ave., NW
#136
Washington, DC  20008-4530

Eric H. Holder, Jr.
U.S. Attorney for the District
  Of Columbia
Judiciary Square Building
555 4th Street, NW
Washington, DC  20008

RE:  Social Security Disability Claim xxx-xx-xxxx

Dear Mr. Holder:

I hereby certify that the following facts regarding the transmission, receipt, and custody of the enclosed document (The Caliban Complex: An Attempt at Self-Analysis) are accurate and true to the best of my knowledge.

1.  Some time in about mid-summer 1992 I sent via the U.S. Postal Service the enclosed writing, with cover letter, to Jerry M. Wiener, M.D., chairman of the Department of Psychiatry of the George Washington University Medical Center.  Dr. Wiener and I had had no prior interaction of any kind.  In the cover letter, a copy of which I have since lost but which Dr. Wiener may yet retain, I stated that I was interested in psychotherapy, and sought Dr. Wiener’s assistance in locating a psychiatrist who might offer psychiatric care at a significantly reduced fee or pro bono.  I believe that I stated in the cover letter that I was formerly a patient of Stanley R. Palombo, M.D., a clinical professor of psychiatry at GW.  Dr. Wiener did not respond to my letter.

2.  In about August 1992 I telephoned Dr. Wiener to inquire about the letter.  Dr. Wiener acknowledged that he had received the letter and attached document, but that he had transmitted the document to Dr. Tsao.  I asked Dr. Wiener about opportunities for therapy.  Dr. Wiener stated that the Medical Center could evaluate me for therapy at an appropriate fee to be arranged with the Medical Center.

3.  I next telephoned Dr. Tsao to inquire about the referenced document I had sent to Dr. Wiener and to inquire about psychotherapy at GW.  Dr. Tsao stated that he vaguely recalled having received some kind of document that seemed to correspond to my description.  Dr. Tsao was curious about how I obtained his name.  Dr. Tsao advised me that if I was interested in psychotherapy at GW I would have to make arrangements with patient in-take.

4.  I next telephoned patient in-take to arrange an initial assessment.  Some days later I received a telephone call from Napoleon Cuenco, M.D., and arranged an appointment for an initial assessment, to commence on September 1, 1992.

5.  On September 1, 1992 I met with Dr. Cuenco in his office.  At the commencement of the clinical interview Dr. Cuenco pointed to the referenced writing, which was located on a shelf in his office.  The writing, bound as it was in a light-blue jacket, was readily-identifiable to me.  Dr. Cuenco stated that he had read the document.  I did not solicit any comment from Dr. Cuenco about the writing, and he offered no further comment about the writing on September 1, 1992 or the follow-up (and concluding) initial assessment consultation on September 8, 1992.

A staff psychiatrist was present at the initial assessment consultation on September 1, 1992, in addition to Dr. Cuenco.  I was introduced to the staff psychiatrist (a diminutive, middle-aged, white male with a beard), but I no longer recall his name.  I believe that the presence of a staff psychiatrist at an initial assessment is a deviation from Psychiatry Department protocol; the purpose of the staff psychiatrist’s presence was not explained to me, but I did not object to his presence.

The initial assessment chart prepared by Dr. Cuenco, dated September 24, 1992, does not refer to Dr. Cuenco’s receipt of the writing or its content.  A reference in the assessment chart (“Family History” at p. 3) appears to be an oblique allusion to the writing: “The patient compares [his aunt] to the set-up that exists between an abusive colonial power and an enslaved territory.”

A portion of the writing includes an expansive discussion of what appears to be a fixed delusional system of long-standing duration, coextensive with the diagnosis Delusional (Paranoid) Disorder or consistent with the diagnosis Paranoid Schizophrenia.  The initial assessment chart prepared by Dr. Cuenco, dated September 24, 1992, provides no indication whatsoever that the aforementioned differential diagnoses were considered as rule-outs.  A fixed delusional system of long-standing duration is not consistent wit Bi-polar Disorder, under the psychiatric nomenclature

In a letter dated September 2, 1992 I detailed to Dr. Cuenco my belief that each of the treating psychiatrists (and one of the psychologists) I had consulted during the period January 1990 to October 1991 had surreptitiously provided confidential mental health information to my former employer, an apparently paranoid belief.  The initial assessment chart (at p. 2) acknowledges (with a slight distortion) this belief: “Patient reportedly terminated [psychotherapy] whenever he felt that the therapists were in communication with his employers [sic] or were no longer helpful to him.”

Note that the plural phrase “his employers” used by Dr. Cuenco carries an important diagnostic distinction from the singular phrase “his employer.” By use of the plural Dr. Cuenco transforms a complex and fixed delusional belief system centering on the supposed activities of a single entity [consistent with the diagnosis Delusional (Paranoid) Disorder or Paranoid Schizophrenia] into a diffuse or mood-congruent (i.e., transient) paranoia more consistent with the affective instability characteristic of Bi-Polar Disorder.  (I provided to the Office of U.S. Attorney a copy of the referenced letter to Dr. Cuenco dated September 2, 1992.  See Letter to Office of U.S. Attorney dated September 1, 1995).  The enclosed writing (The Caliban Complex), which Dr. Cuenco acknowledged having read, clearly states my belief that I had been under surveillance by a single entity, the management of the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.

Some time in late September 1992 Dr. Cuenco presented my case before a team of staff psychiatrists, presumably including Daniel Tsao, M.D., at a departmental Case Conference. According to protocol, I did not attend.  Presumably, Dr. Cuenco defended the diagnosis Bi-Polar Disorder to the satisfaction of the staff psychiatrists present at the Case Conference.

Dr. Cuenco retained the writing and subsequently gave the writing to Suzanne M. Pitts, M.D., the resident to whom I was assigned for psychotherapy, which commenced in late October 1992.  Dr. Pitts retained the writing on a shelf in her office.  Some time in about 1993 Dr. Pitts returned the writing to me at my request.

Sincerely,

Gary Freedman

NOTE:  The attached writing (in blue binder) is the actual physical entity whose chain of custody is detailed above.  The document has not been altered in any way.