Hemodiealysis (222.p.1)

THE RECRUIT » DR. A. • April • “I believe he would be a good candidate — for the advanced program.”

“I thought he had psychotic breaks?” Dr. B., the chair of the committee, started with. Always very to the point.

“No… no psychotic breaks that we know of. He has had at least one severe manic episode, caused by extreme stress.”

“But he is a good candidate in spite of that?”

“His mania under stress appears to manifest as becoming extremely energized & focused on solving the problems that caused the stress: he considers all possible actions — even extra-legal or self-transformational — that will help provide a positive resolution in his calculation. In essence, he has an on-demand bipolar condition. He crashed a bit after the problems were solved, but was not debilitated by the crash.”

“And this does not cause permanent damage to him?”

“Not damage per se, but it can transform him. Previous to the known manic episode, he was quite solitary beyond work and family, and would appear to be a very quiet introvert to most people.

During the episode, one of his solutions was to become hyper-social, interacting with almost anyone who could provide an alternative perspective. After the problems were resolved he stopped being hyper-social, but continued to be very social without needing to be.

He is social purely by choice, and is equally comfortable being completely isolated. So he effectively improved himself for our purposes” “How is that an improvement, in your opinion?”

“The members of the advanced program need to be very independent, and tend to be isolated for long stretches. But they - 19 -