DIRECTOR BOSTON DISPENSARY
AND
MABEL R. WILSON
SOCIAL WORKER, MENTAL CLINIC, BOSTON DISPENSARY
Early last June Mrs. R., a rosy-cheeked, attractive Irish-American woman of thirty years, came to the mental clinic of the Boston Dispensary in a depressed and emotional condition. She was obsessed by the idea that every one in the world had syphilis, and that she in particular was a menace to her husband and their three young children. So firm was this conviction that she had seriously contemplated suicide.
Four years previously Mrs. R. had shown distinct manifestations of syphilis, and had received medical treatment. The infection the physicians believed was accidental, and the husband and children had proved, upon examination, to be free from any symptoms. For over a year in Mrs. R.'s case Wassermann tests had indicated that the disease had been cured; but the doctor's assurances were of no avail.
The blackness of this patient's depression had almost wrecked her home. For months she had not prepared a single meal. The patience of her relatives and friends and of the priest of her church—who considered her what she looked, the picture of health—was entirely exhausted.
Ordinarily the income of the family was sufficient for self-support. Mr. R., a bright, clean-looking young bar-tender, who was well thought of by his employers, earned $18 a week. He had been making a desperate effort to meet the extra expenses due to his wife's illness. The strain was beginning to tell upon him, however, and the health of the children was also falling below normal. The family lived in a five-room tenement in a congested and undesirable neighborhood. Mrs. R. for this reason worried constantly about the possible bad influences upon her two elder children, who were just beginning to go to school.
Thus the mental clinic faced an acute situation. If it were not effectively dealt with it would, at worst, terminate in suicide, and, at best, in breaking up a promising family.