HANDICAPTIVITY:
The Dolphin and the “Good” Mental Patient

By Rita Cronise, M.S.

The Dolphin

“One has to experience being caged if one is to appreciate freedom.”
– Meher Baba, Discourses

Several years ago I met a dolphin named Bahama Mama. She had been one of a dozen captive dolphins in a “Swim with the Dolphins” program in the Bahamas. One day she leaped the fence of her pen to freedom.

At around that same time, I was participating in an EarthWatch expedition in the Bahamas. EarthWatch allows people to join a scientific research team as part of a working vacation. Our project was to photo-identify and take a census of the wild dolphins in the region. We did this by taking pictures of their dorsal fins, which are as unique as fingerprints.

A few days into the project, we encountered Bahama Mama. The project researchers immediately recognized her because they had photo-identified her a year earlier while she was still in captivity. They enticed her to the boat by tossing out bait fish and then fed her by hand for an up close look. She looked healthy. Even though her wild companions kept their distance, they waited for her. She had made new friends.

Over the next two weeks, we spotted Bahama Mama several times. Each time we saw her, she was with a different group of wild dolphins, clearly a welcome member of the local dolphin community.


The “Good” Mental Patient

Freedom: Being at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint.
– American College Dictionary

About a year later, I found myself in a form of captivity not unlike that experienced by my dolphin friend. I was hospitalized for psychiatric symptoms and found myself in a “locked” psychiatric ward, sometimes in restraints for extended periods of time.

Looking back on those years, treatment was more about changing my behavior to make me a “good” mental patient than about helping me to return to a free and independent life.

The Dolphin Rehabilitator

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people
what they do not want to hear.
-- George Orwell

Because of my fascination with dolphins, I have been drawn to the writings of Ric O’Barry. He trained the dolphins who starred in the original Flipper television series. After the dolphin he loved most died in his arms, Ric became an activist, fighting to free captive dolphins.

Ric has written two books: “Behind the Dolphin Smile” and “To Free a Dolphin.” While reading about the techniques he uses to return captive dolphins to the wild I was struck by how similar they are to the evolving practices that are used to transform the mental health system and help people recover from mental illness...