Hello? Ralph Spy speaking. Oh, hello Chief.
Ah yes, right away, Chief.
Spy, we've got a problem.
DE is on the rampage.
DE?
DE!
You mean "may"!
Here this is a checklist from Central Intelligence on DE.
Hmm, looks like "Ed"...
Spy, that's upside down.
Sorry, chief.
Oh yes, DE, hmm, the International degrading of words, in the words meaning less than...
What's that got to do with me, Chief?
They've started on a really good word "humanization".
You mean they add a DE to that?
They've added DE to humanization.
Where?
In front of it, and now we've got to find out how, 
and most important why.
Anything to go on, Chief?
Not anymore than it's been going on for a long time.
I'll be alone?
No Spy, get Invisible Agent Five to help you.
Aww, chief!
I said get A5.
You need help again, Spy?
A5, help Spy with this one. I know you've been 
interested in this for a long time.
Thanks Chief, this is a problem that
needs better understanding.
I'd be glad to help.
A5, thanks.
Chief, I'm sure I can handle this alone.
A5, please?
DE, the arch enemy of human dignity.
Ralph Spy, quick at pointing out a problem
but not always reasoning why.
The Chief. he's not satisfied.
just to fix blame, but must
first find the cause.
Invisible Agent 5
That's me. I'm never seen, but my power of
reasoning influences all decisions.
A5,
I think this is a ridiculous place to start
the investigation.
Quick, Spy, look to your left.
Look, I told told you not to go back,
what you gonna do 'bout that!
It looks like DE has infiltrated the
police force.
Spy, take a look at this.
Wowee!
[Boss yelling]
Well!
DE has gotten into management!
Spy, it isn't just the police or management.
We're all been exposed to DE, but we have
the opportunity to yell back, laugh at,
ignore, or walk away from DE, but in a
controlled community this isn't possible.
Wait'll the chief hears about this...
controlled communities...
Controlled communities?
Controlled communities are
total institutions.
Aha, total institutions, wonderful!
What are total institutions?
You'll understand it better if
we take a look at a few total institutions. 
Let's start with the military.
DE is in the military? Why would
DE try to infiltrate the military, A5?
Because, Spy, it's one of the easiest places for him.
to operate. The military is for the most
part a total institution.
What makes a total institution?
A total institution is a closed world 
like this army camp,
a ship at sea, or a hospital, where the total
living experience is within the
institutional boundaries.
Hmm, that's probably why they have 
this fence around the camp, A5.
Now I understand total institutions.
That's just part of it, Spy. 
Another feature of a total institution
is that a large group is governed 
by a smaller group who is in authority.
You mean like the officers in charge here?
Yes, Spy.
But where does DE fit in?
Well let's watch this typical recruit and see.
Hmm...
This is a new recruit.
Up to the time of his induction he lived a
normal civilian life with all the
freedom that goes with it.
But upon entering the army he becomes 
more or less just one of a group.
He's dressed as a group.
and treated as a group.
All right, you meat heads... ten hut! Right face... about face...
forward march... hut hut hee ho, hut hut hee ho,
The recruit works, eats and sleeps,
in a controlled community and is so 
regimented that he begins to feel
less like an individual and more like
just one of the batch.
That's one of the ways D is slowly creeping in.
I'm beginning to see, A5.
This is a vicious plot to dehumanize the American fighting man.
Not quite, Spy, the Army has a rationale
or special purpose for setting
up the rules and procedures they follow.
Yes, to dehumanize the individual.
No, the rationale of the Army is to make
soldiers out of a large group of young
men in the fastest, easiest way they can.
Now, whether they could do it another way
may be a legitimate question.
Yes and I would like to ask it.
Before you do, let's take a look at another total institution,
the prison system.
You mean...
Yes, DE is at work in the prisons.
Does DE operate in prisons like in the Army?
Yes, in many ways. A person enters a prison, because of
some crime of his against society, for 2
years, 10 years, 50 years, maybe even for life.
He enters as an individual, but soon
becomes just one of a total group of
inmates that make up the institution.
This large group of inmates is in turn
governed by a small group of guards and
a warden who sets up the rules
the inmates are to live by.
In the prison files, he has a number instead of a name,
his working, eating, sleeping and
recreation are a never-changing routine
that makes him feel more like a human
robot than a human being.
Aha, this is where DE comes in.
Well, yes, through this whole process of
rules and regulations,
DE tends to make the inmate feel less
than an individual.
Let's do away with the rules and regulations.
There's nothing wrong with rules regulations, 
but we should examine them and see if they
are accomplishing what 
we intended them to accomplish.
In the case of the prison,
the rules are supposed to help make a
bad guy into a good guy.
Hmm, A5 are there any more total
institutions?
Yes let's take a look at the hospitals for the mentally ill
and mentally retarded and make a study of the total institution and DE.
A5, it's two o'clock, why the ringing bell?
There must be a reason for it.
Pardon me, doctor, but that bell - why is it ringing?
It always rings at this time.
Why?
Because... you know, I've never thought about that.
Very interesting, doctor. Thank
you.
Spy, this is a good example of how 
practices can be built into total institutions.
They're perpetuated, even if no one knows why.
You mean that there probably 
isn't a reason for that bell to ring?
I'm afraid that's it.
Nurse, why are these doors locked?
Three months ago, a patient tried to escape.
So you locked everyone's room
because of what one person did three months ago?
Yes, but it's for their own good.
What'd she mean, for their own good?
The rationale of mental hospitals is treatment,
therefore anything that happens to 
patients can be interpreted as treatment,
thus for their own good.
Some treatment!
Hello ma'am, may I ask what you're doing?
Yes, you may.
What are you doing?
It's an annual check we give patients 
and this is the last of four units to be processed.
A5, I'd call that DE grading an 
individual into thinking he's a part of a unit.
Spy, a unit is a term used not to degrade
but to aid in handling groups of individuals.
No one degrades or dehumanizes anyone deliberately or just to be mean.
It usually comes about because of 
the way a system is set up
or because circumstances make it seem the right thing to do.
Ma'am where are these people going from here?
They will be going to industrial therapy .
Hmm, washing clothes, A5.
Can DE work in here, too?
Yes, Spy, DE can work here 
and that's why there's a need to
examine the working conditions and
employees benefits to see if they're the
kind you and I would like to work under.
What kind of benefits? Name one.
Coffee break, vacations, bonuses, pay, incentive plans...
Okay okay that's fine,
Let's take a look at that list the chief gave you about
mental hospitals and discuss it.
Just the thing I was going to say myself,
Spy, it's in your inside coat pocket.
I'll find it A5, I think it's in my inside coat pocket.
Yes, here it is. Is the patient required 
to sleep work and play
in a restricted number of places, or does
he have relative freedom of movement?
Spy, remember we talked about this happening
in the prisons. You can see now this
would limit a choice of companions as
well as other choices.
Is this necessary?
Well, let's say it's an easier way of
handling people and knowing where they are,
or should be. How many specific arrangements
are dictated simply by the need to 
regulate many by few?
Oh boy, this reminds me of the Chief back at the office.
What would happen if the Chief didn't dictate and regulate everyone's time.
I've often wondered about that.
Look at this next one - do we disregard the
patient's normal privacies?
Normal privacies?
Just look at the rest of the list - 
no privacies in toilet or shower facilities,
constant surveillance by
staff,
personal possessions removed,
censoring of mail,
no privacy when having
visitors,
no place to go when you want to be alone.
You can see from this list, Spy,
that a complete lack of normal privacy
would certainly dehumanize a patient.
That DE will stop at nothing!
Do we subject the patient to the sickness 
treatment rationale of the institution?
What does that mean?
Spy, all actions of the patient 
are interpreted as signs of illness.
No matter what the individual does
he's wearing a permanent badge of his
diagnosis.
Agent!
Let's go on.
Does the punishment plan overlap work and play?
What do you mean by that?
If the man in the laundry goofed off at work
would he be punished by not being
allowed to go to the ball game?
If I goofed off the Chief would punish me!
By calling your wife and telling her she's
not to let you go out with the boys?
My wife would do that on her own.
Do we make the patient feel that he's a
worthwhile contributing 
member of society?
It's most important that the patient feels
he is involved rather than
just being a pawn of the institution.
Do we identify the question of release with
a privilege system?
Do we give the patient the feeling that 
all he has to do to get out is to behave?
Can we confuse conformity to rules with mental health?
Behave and you'll get out.
Why, this could lead to serious problems.
It does, because the patient adapts himself
to the depersonalization process 
and the privilege system.
This could lead to institutional neurosis.
Institutional rhinoceros?
Institutional neurosis.
Your list has some of the things that
contribute to it.
Loss of contact with the outside world,
enforced idleness,
bossiness of staff,
loss of personal friends, 
possessions, and personal events,
ward atmosphere, drugs,
loss of prospects outside the
institution.
These lead to institutional neurosis?
You mean that patients actually
condition themselves so they don't want to leave?
They go along with being called
a good patient and don't cause any trouble,
finally ending so wrapped up in
the institutional ways that to leave
scares them back to the 
security of the institution.
Institutional neurosis.
It doesn't have a DE in front of it.
No, but it contains some of the worst DEs:
depersonalization, detachment, denial.
Then this list does check out. Let's get back to the chief.
Well, Chief, that list certainly proves that DE has moved in .
A5, how can we get dehumanization out
of the institution's?
Chief, as Spy and I have said,
most of these dehumanizing
examples can be rationalized or can be
the result of built-in practices that no
one recognizes as outdated.
Spy, you have that other list.
This list contains some questions that should be 
asked in regard to dehumanization.
They pertain to mental hospitals, 
but could be applied to any total institution.
In your inside pocket, Spy.
Just where I was going to look for it next.
Here we are, Chief.
Hmm, do these
processes go all in my hospital?
If they do and I approve of them,
do they conform to the goals of the hospital 
and are they in the best interest of the patient?
If they do and I don't approve of them
what can I do to eliminate or to
minimize their effects on the patient?
Are we perpetuating outdated and
obsolete practices?
That's no answer. Those are only questions.
There seems to be no simple answer, Spy.
Only a constant re-examining of the methods being used and of the rationale behind them.
We must always ask the question -  is what's being
done really what is best for the patient? -
and to keep in mind that there is an
inherent dignity in every human being
that must not be destroyed.
