A Review of Bethany's Psychologists

In The Memory of Running, the most disturbing scene in the entire book to me was when Smithy found Count's dog in the freezer after Bethany had presumably stuffed it there. This, more than anything else Bethany had done, reinforced the fact that she is truly mentally unstable, and that she needs serious attention. Her high school prom scene, although also disturbing, can be seen as almost justified given how she was being treated, and thus this scene wasn't quite as disturbing to me. However, the dog had done nothing more than walk across her presents, which definitely doesn't seem like an offense worth killing over, yet Bethany did just that. Although it may be argued that the voice was what killed the dog, and not Bethany, I think that this just points to how intertwined Bethany and the voice have become and how difficult they are to distinguish.

This scene with Bethany also got me thinking on how unrealistically incompetent her psychologists are. The first "golfer" psychologist didn't even believe that Bethany had a serious problem and took an overall flippant attitude towards treating her. He did not seem to be trying to make her better and didn't seem to be treating her or preventing her from harming herself or others. Dr. Glass is almost as bad, as she completely misjudges Bethany, believing the outlandish lies that Bethany tells. Dr. Glass also seems completely at a loss when Bethany's voice truly comes back, which surprised me, since isn't she supposed to be a trained psychologist ?Glass's incompetence is evident in her lack of knowledge of her patient and her seemingly inability to do anything once Bethany froze up.

Glass's biggest failure though was when Smithy called her concerned about the dog, and she tells Smithy that he is crazy for thinking that, because Bethany is harmless and would never hurt another creature. She then, rather obnoxiously, tells Smithy to never call her again. I thought she might feel a little bad for what she incorrectly accused him of earlier in the novel, but she didn't show any signs of remorse in this scene. Plus, Glass was absolutely wrong, because Bethany did murder the dog, so Bethany obviously is capable of that level of violence. Overall, this left me with very little respect for the psychologists that treated Bethany, because Bethany is obviously capable of harming others and herself despite what these psychologists say. The lack of skill in her psychologists also seems a little unrealistic to me, given that it was the late 20th century, and they should have been better educated and equipped to deal with cases such as Bethany.