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 In 1971, Patch Adams founded an experiment in community that became the basis for his dream of the Gesundheit! Institute. He and a group of twenty friends and their children began living together in a six-bedroom house where for eight years they kept their doors open, free of charge, to anyone who needed medical care. The movie about his life opened across the United States to widespread popularity, but lukewarm reviews. This interview took place two weeks before the European opening of his movie. Larry Becker: Patch, this issue of the Journal focuses on community and what the term means to different people. For ourselves, we`re part of an intentional community that grew up around an alternative school in Albany, New York, known as the Free School. Having read your book, Gesundheit!, I was struck by the similarities between the stories of people who were here at the beginning of our school and your stories about the people who started your free clinic. Both, it seems, began out of inspiration and necessity, and both were brought into being by people willing to give themselves over to the task at hand. Patch Adams: Yes, that`s how it was for us until about fifteen years into our experiment. For me it was the most stimulating, wonderful, exciting, creative, and useful time. We were always useful for others. Larry: It sounds like it was a cauldron of activity. Patch: I loved it, and it really helped our patients. We didn`t give psychotropic medication for the mentally ill; we gave experience. In a way we said, "Everyone here`s crazy. Come on in." What`s interesting is that the group we started with in 1971 all stayed together. I left the community in 1979 when they wanted to stop doing the medical care, but all of those people are still together today, twenty-eight years later. |
