Lay the Ghost to Rest

Eitan was, in his own estimation, as “normal” as they come. After his wife Yael’s passing, he’d soldiered on and had done a remarkable job of caring for his children in addition to keeping his legal practice afloat and staying on top of the daf. But then, when he became engaged to a young widow named Shani, normal turned to bizarre — as he began seeing Yael’s ghost on a daily basis. Part II

It wasn’t the first time I found myself working with someone who was plagued by ghosts.

I once had a patient who was convinced his neighbor was a vampire and was secretly drinking his blood. That distraught fellow had called the cops enough times to end up in a state psychiatric hospital and actually got better with antipsychotic treatment. I had another patient who was convinced he was a werewolf and that he’d transformed into a giant dog-beast every full moon, and he also improved significantly after restarting his meds. Ghosts were often handled with a similar treatment regimen.

But Eitan was different. This young lawyer and father didn’t have any other delusional beliefs, symptoms of depression or a mood disorder, and there were no neurological or drug-related issues that seemed to be causing his daily experience.