Summary

"Surrounded by the Village Idiots" -- Catherine Gildiner, a clinical psychologist, details therapy with her first patient, Laura Wilkes. Laura had herpes and wanted to address the stress that made her outbreaks more severe. She told Gildiner that her boyfriend, Ed, had given her the disease, but then he lied about having it. Laura demonstrated she was accustomed to selfish and deceitful behavior from Ed when she told Gildiner she did not think there was much she could do about him.

For the next session, Laura compiled a list of people who caused her stress. One of those people was her father. When Gildiner pressed Laura, Laura said that her earliest memory of her father was when she fell off a slide and cut her foot. After she was treated at the emergency room...