Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory–IV (MCMI-IV) assessment of bipolar spectrum disorders.

Abstract

W hile I was working at a hospital, we took turns carrying the emergency room pager. My turn was Wednesday afternoons. One such Wednesday, I headed down to the first-floor emergency room from my office on the 15th floor after the pager went off. I was shown into a small medical examining room where a man and a woman were seated. The 26-year-old man needed a shave. He wore a loud Hawaiian shirt, black pants, and loafers. The woman was more conservatively dressed in a white blouse and green skirt. The man responded to my question of how I could help by telling me that there was nothing wrong with him, but that his girlfriend insisted on his being "checked." He was hoping I would convince his girlfriend that he was OK so they could both go home. Laughing, he volunteered that he had no idea why his girlfriend thought he needed to be "checked." I did not respond and waited in silence until the girlfriend spoke.The girlfriend explained that her boyfriend wanted to quit his job because he believed he knew more about the warehouse vehicle tires business than anyone else in the world. "The other workers in the office are morons," he interjected. According to the girlfriend, the man I will call "Don" had no savings and needed to keep working in order to eat and pay his part of their rent. He interrupted her to say that he planned to sell his car. The girlfriend continued by noting that Don wanted to start his own company but did not have any of the resources needed.