GW: Psychotherapy December 1992 -- Suzanne M. Pitts, M.D.

I wrote the following letter to my then-treating psychiatrist at the George Washington University Medical Center Suzanne M. Pitts, M.D. in late December 1992.  The letter was a power play.  I wanted to memorialize the fact that Dr. Pitts had said that I was improving in therapy; I also wanted to record the fact that I had been in therapy for two months (since the last week in October 1992), but Dr. Pitts had not recommended that I take medication.  Her decision to delay recommending that I take medication has always been a mystery to me since the initial assessment chart prepared in September 1992 by Napoleon Cuenco, M.D. recommended that I take antipsychotic medication for bipolar disorder.  At the time I wrote the following letter, I had not yet read Dr. Cuenco's initial assessment chart.  Also, I do not believe that I sent a copy of the following letter to the Social Security Administration in support of my disability claim.  I want to emphasize that I did not write the following letter in contemplation of filing a claim for disability benefits.  I eventually filed a claim for SSA benefits in April 1993.

December 24, 1992
3801 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Apartment 136
Washington, DC  20008

Dr. Suzanne M. Pitts
Department of Psychiatry
George Washington University
Medical Center
2150 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC  20037

Dear Dr. Pitts;

Enclosed is a tape recording of a telephone conversation that I had with my sister on the evening of December 23, 1992.

The conversation reveals my continuing difficulties with very serious delusional thinking, including my belief that my sister is in communication with my former employer, the belief that I was being harassed by co-workers at my former place of employment, the belief that strangers were aware of events that are transpiring at my former place of employment.  (On Wednesday December 23, 1992, for example, while at my local public library, I formed the belief that the librarians were reacting to events that occurred at my former place of employment that day; I formed the belief that the events may have had something to do with my autobiographical sketch [The Caliban Complex] and also related to the issue of projection.)

These delusional beliefs belie assertions that I am improving in therapy.  The telephone call evidences my annoying and litigious tendencies that seem consistent with paranoid personality.  The possibility of psychosis cannot be ruled out.  My sister has read a considerable amount of material on the issue of paranoia, and believes my thought system is typically paranoid.

I respectfully request that some consideration be given to a reevaluation of my case, preferably by a senior psychiatrist in the department.

Sincerely,

Gary Freedman