The Mango Man

Ok. Time for a little bit of humor on the MedFriendly Blog. I figured I would reach back into the memory banks for a story from my graduate school days in south Florida. At the time, I had a patient with antisocial personality disorder. When the average person hears “antisocial” they think of someone who likes to stay by him/herself and does not like to socialize with others. But the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder is something entirely different. Basically, it is someone with a longstanding pattern of flagrant violations of the rights of others which often includes lack of remorse. Such individuals often have a history of animal abuse, fire-starting, and bed-wetting.

So this particular patient comes in one day and tells me that he is sick and tired of his neighbor’s animals pooping on his lawn. His solution: injecting industrial-force insecticide into the mangos that these animals eat in the backyard. Mango trees are very common in Florida. Needless to say I tried to discourage this type of behavior. Well, the next week, this guy comes back and I get a call that he is in the waiting room. When I went out there, he says “I have a present for you.” Both of his arms were extended and in each hand were two large mangos! He didn’t understand why I refused to take them and to this day, I wonder if he poisoned them.