One of my patients who recently bought hearing aids shared his very interesting experience with Helen Keller.
His mother was a friend of Keller. In the late 1950s, when he was 12 years old, he would accompany his mother to Keller’s house for social visits. He remembers being astonished by the fact that this blind and deaf woman could identify the color and variety of a rose by simply smelling it.
As he told me this story, I recalled that in 1973 I did a hearing evaluation on middle aged deaf man in Montana. He had been committed to an asylum when he was an adolescent because of his wild behavior.
When she was a child, Helen Keller had similar behavioral problems. At the age of 7 Keller became very wild and unruly. She would kick and scream when angry. She inflicted raging tantrums on her parents. Many relatives felt she should be institutionalized. Her parents refused to commit her to an asylum and instead, helped her overcome her handicaps and achieve an amazing life.
If Helen Keller had been institutionalized we would have lost an inspiring example of human spirit.
