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"What is my case? Why am I here? What happened to s about myself?" I blurted out all at once "I couldn't even remember my real name! I still can't remember my surname"

The high notes of hysteria in ently

"I can understand your anxiety," he said, "and I want to put you at ease as quickly as I can That way, you'll recover faster It would be best," he continued, "if you re up the eht reject the inforain and then we could be worse off than we are now"

"Reject the infor my head The calmer he was, the more anxious I felt "Why did I reject such important information aboutA with me?" I pursued, my voice so shrill it hurt my own ears

"I assure you that what's wrong with you at the moment won't last And once you are cured, there's very little chance this will happen again," he replied in a mellow voice It didn't satisfy me, however

"What will not happen? What do I have, a disease? What?" I asked He couldn't talk fast enough for me

"From what I understand about your situation, I feel safe in a prelih he looked unco himself so quickly

"I knohat a my head, "but that other word--"

"Psychogenic sianic mental disorder There's no physical reason for you to be unable to res You didn't suffer any injury to your brain; physical injury, that is There are no drugs or alcohol involved You're not an epileptic, and," he said with a setful"

"What happened then? What's caused this?"

"What's happened is you have experienced a very traunitude that your brain has shut down its ," he said softly, leaning over the desk toward me "It's really a self-defense mechanism the mind employs and is not uncommon in situations such as yours

"This trau mechanism Another term for this today is dissociative amnesia, the inability to recall important personal information"

"What was it?" I asked,"What was the traumatic event?"

"It's important you remember that on your own, Laura," he said

"Laura, but Laura what? What's my full name?" I demanded "Tell me"