William Rehnquist's DT's

The great thing about the William Rehnquist psychosis story was that I have inside knowledge of Rehnquist's condition as a result of my historical research.

In fact, Rehnquist did not suffer from psychosis; it was delirium tremens, a topic on which I have two forthcoming articles.

With psychosis, a mental condition often connected to "a history of traumatic incidents" predisposes a person to hallucinations, paranoia, and the like.

Delirium tremens is a short-term outcome of withdrawal from a substance on which a person's brain had developed severe dependence. Delirium tremens, known as "the dt's," is generally associated with sudden withdrawal from heavy-duty alcohol consumption. A local doctor told me of a case where a severe alcoholic suddenly got religion, stopped drinking cold turkey, and ended up in the hospital with the dt's. But delirium tremens can be linked to opium and other substances as well.

For William Rehnquist to have hallucinations of CIA plots and wander into a hospital lobby, he must have been heavy into placidyl, even heavier than the triple the normal dose he was supposed to be taking. Because his brain was so dependent for its functioning on the placidyl, it went haywire when he stopped taking it.

The really odd thing about delirium tremens (and another thing that differentiates delirium tremens from psychosis) is that a person can fall asleep after several days of hallucinations stemming from the dt's and wake up perfectly rational.

Except in Rehnquist's case that is. Rehnquist was probably closer to the real world when he was hallucinating CIA plots than he was in his normal right-wing thinking. After all, there have been a lot of CIA plots, but the only "Warren Court excesses" are in the delusions of the right.