from the casebook of Carl Gustav Jung


The case was hopeless. Catatonia,
Dementia, Schizophrenia.
And, as everybody knows,
Schizophrenia cannot be cured.

Whether out of ignorance, or arrogance,
the new young doctor spurned the diagnosis,
persevering night and day to treat
the still and silent patient.

She awoke, and she could talk once more.
She said she had been living on the moon.
It’s not as dry and cold as it appears.
It is home to the Lunarians.

At first she saw around her none but men.
But as she gained their confidence, they said
they kept their womenfolk and children
far beneath the surface.

This they did because they were afraid
of the vampire, who’d come swooping down
and carry them off with him to the mountain
wherein he dwelled.

Smitten by the plight of those poor people,
she vowed herself to be their champion.
A tower was built for her, to meet the vampire
in the sky, when next he came.

Standing on the lofty tower, she waited
for the terror flying from the mountain,
a dagger tightly grasped beneath her mantle
to plunge into his breast.

The vampire came on owlish pinions.
Alighting on the tower, he stood before her,
wings covering his form from head to foot.
Nothing could be seen of him but feathers.

Suddenly the wings spread wide, revealing
an indescribably beautiful man
who clutched her to his lovely white breast.
But now she could not wield her ritual knife…

Her story turned into recriminations.
By interfering, the psychiatrist
had plucked her from the moon, to drag her
back to earth. Whatever for?

The doctor told the silent, weeping patient:
Never can you go back to the moon.
You’ll have to make the best of it down here
upon the earth.

The moon, she cried, is joyful! Full of life!
The earth is where your brother takes you
and the next-door neighbour rapes you.
What is there to keep a woman here?

In time she was discharged from the asylum.
She went back to her village, married,
settled down and had four children,
living to a ripe old age.

The children grew up happy and successful.
Now, as everybody knows,
Schizophrenia cannot be cured.
So was she? Only the Lunarians can know.