Dr. Peter Ingham Quotes in Awakenings (1990)

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Dr. Peter Ingham Quotes:

  • Dr. Peter Ingham: Most died during the acute stage of the illness, during a sleep so deep they couldn't be roused. A sleep that in most cases lasted several months. Those who survived, who awoke, seemed fine, as though nothing had happened. Years went by - five, ten, fifteen - before anyone suspected they were not well... they were not. I began to see them in the early 1930's - old people brought in by their children, young people brought in by their parents - all of them complaining they weren't themselves anymore. They'd grown distant, aloof, anti-social, they daydreamed at the dinner table. I referred them to psychiatrists. Before long they were being referred back to me. They could no longer dress themselves or feed themselves. They could no longer speak in most cases. Families went mad. People who were normal, were now elsewhere.

    Dr. Sayer: What's it like to be them? What are they thinking?

    Dr. Peter Ingham: They're not. The virus didn't spare the higher faculties.

    Dr. Sayer: We know what for a fact?

    Dr. Peter Ingham: Yes.

    Dr. Sayer: Because?

    Dr. Peter Ingham: Because the alternative is unthinkable.

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