Sometimes he persistently refuses
food, and gives no reason for it. The unthinking nurse is tried,
puzzled, and irritated. In other ways, perhaps, the patient seems quite
normal. But, after all, the explanation is very simple. He probably is
as confident that the food is poisoned as you are that it is as it
should be. No arguing would convince him, for, to his mind, the nurse is
either a complete dupe or an agent of the people whom he knows are
plotting his death. And urging him only strengthens his conviction.
The writer recalls one such case of a patient who had to be tube fed
through many months, though a tray was set before her three times a
day--and as regularly refused. Then one day she was seen slipping food
from off another patient's tray and eating it greedily, not knowing she
was observed. When questioned, though she had never before given a
reason for refusing food served to her, she said that "they" had nothing
against Mrs. B., so wouldn't try to poison her. Her reasoning was
excellent when one accepted her premises.
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