Word: deleon
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FLORIDA HAS BEEN the scene of many a treasure hunt and most of these quests demanded payment in blood for what was sought in gold. Or, in the case of Juan Ponce DeLeon, rewarded with disease and death when all that he sought were the gentle, regenerative waters of immortality. A small thing to ask, one would think...
...have engaged in chases in Florida, no better prepared for the eventualities that lurked there. Growing up within sight of the lighthouse at Ponce DeLeon Inlet, known to locals as Mosquito Lagoon, I remain paralyzed by that romanticism of youth which is more healthily shed. As the lobster ages, he abandons the old shell and there grows a larger suit to fit his larger conception of the world. The waters are too warm for lobsters in Florida...
...brothers and sisters" to make frantic telephone calls to the hospital therapists. In one instance, when they asked what to do about a family member who was running around the house waving a knife, they were simply advised: "Do whatever you think right. Call the cops if necessary." Says DeLeon: "No one ever got hurt. Once a guy got drunk and busted up the whole house. The police picked him up, let him out the next day, and he went back and repaired the house." Eventually, each group took to solving most of its own difficulties. They held family councils...
...year, only one family member had been rehospitalized, and then only for a few days on two occasions. The rest stayed out of real trouble, and some even gained so much confidence that they moved into apartments of their own. One woman, proud of her new stability, recently wrote DeLeon, "I just got an A in a religion course at the community college. Next semester I'm taking two courses...
...theory behind the idea for the experiment, which was originally proposed not by a professional but by a hospital aide, is that chronic mental patients are dependent personalities who do not have much motivation to change their behavior as long as they have other people to look after them. DeLeon's goal was not to cure their dependence but to transfer it to the family group. "Once you switch your attitude toward these people and assume they are in control of themselves," he says, "they no longer go out of control...