Patient File #003: Deirdren Eglantine

Name : Deirdren Eglantine

Age : 16

Height : 5' 5"

Weight : 110 lbs.

Physical Description : Extremely thin, almost frail, build; pale gray eyes; dirty blonde hair

Condition : Telepathy (uncontrolled), severe apathy and depression

Symptoms :
* Seems to "hear" the thoughts of other people around him, but cannot pick and choose which to "hear" and which to ignore
* Will often fall into the mindsets of the others he claims to "hear", interrupting conversations with completely unexpected topics
* Has no desire for himself or the future, and therefore has no aspirations or goals, whether long or short term
* Does not sleep well at night under any circumstances except complete and total isolation

Patient History : Deirdren had always been an unhappy child, although there was no real reason why. Raised by his single mother alongside his older sister (older by only two years), the family was not particularly badly off, and he had as pleasant a childhood as could be imagined. It baffled his mother that he never seemed cheerful, or even remotely pleasant, even though nothing bad had ever happened to him.

When he was ten, he started hearing voices - but they weren't coming from inside his own mind. No, they were picked up from the people surrounding him - mostly students in classes and his mother and sister. They were rare occasions, but he often voiced what he heard, disturbing others. However, the frequency of the hearings began to increase as he got older, and by the time he was thirteen, Deirdren began to feel that he had no mind of his own.

After another two years, his mother gave up on trying to find an explanation for all this, and decided she couldn't manage a career, her daughter, and her almost unresponsive, apathetic son, so she started looking for somewhere to put him. She thought that giving him over to a hospital or asylum for study might give him a better chance of being "cured", as she couldn't afford to keep sending him to psychotherapists. Shortly after he turned sixteen, she sent him to the Murray-Crowe Institute. She has not made regular contact since then, leaving that to her daughter, who only asks for period progress reports.

Personality : Deirdren has come to the conclusion that he has no mind of his own due to the fact that everyone else's minds are constantly (if unknowingly) invading him. He spends most of his time staring out of windows or working on puzzles. He doesn't mind contact, whether physical or verbal, but will frequently interrupt any conversations he is having with trailing thoughts he catches from other people. Sometimes, he will speak without being addressed, usually with odd, broken sentences that match up with the thoughts coming from other people - or even from himself, but he has ceased to believe he has any thoughts of his own.

Deirdren is extremely pessimistic and apathetic. He sees no hope and no future, living only in the present.

Doctor's Notes :

[At age 11, taken by a doctor from a local clinic:] He does not eat unless given food and told directly to eat. The same goes for drinking. He simply does not seem to realize that it is necessary to do so.

[At age 14, taken by a therapist:] He has not tried to kill himself for unknown reasons, although such a thing would usually follow with the level of depression he shows.