The Exorcist

Chris: [about a Ouija board] Wait a minute, you need two. Regan: No ya don't. I do it all the time. Chris: Oh yeah. Well let's both play. Chris: You really don't want me to play, huh? Regan: No, I do. Captain Howdy said no. Chris: Captain who? Regan: Captain Howdy. Chris: Who's Captain Howdy? Regan: You know, I make the questions and he does the answers.

The Exorcist, CC BY-SA 4.0

Karras: It's my mother, Tom. She's alone. I never should have left her. At least in New York, I'd be near, I'd be closer. Tom: Could see about a transfer, Damien. Karras: I need re-assignment, Tom. I want out of this job. It's wrong. It's no good. Tom: You're the best we've got. Karras: Yeah, not really. It's more than psychiatry, and you know that Tom. Some of their problems come down to faith, their vocation and meaning of their lives, and I can't cut it anymore. I need out. I'm unfit. I think I've lost my faith, Tom.

The Exorcist, CC BY-SA 4.0

Chris: What made you say that, Regan? Do you know, sweetheart? Regan: Mother? What's wrong with me? Chris: It's just like the doctor said. It's nerves, and that's all. OK? You just take your pills and you'll be fine, really. OK?

The Exorcist, CC BY-SA 4.0

Dr. Klein: It's a symptom of a type of disturbance in the chemical-electrical activity of the brain. In the case of your daughter, in the temporal lobe - it's up here - in the lateral part of the brain. It's rare, but it does cause bizarre hallucinations and usually just before a convulsion...the shaking of the bed. It's doubtless due to muscular spasms. Chris: Oh no. No, no. That was not a spasm. Look. I got on the bed. The whole bed was thumping and rising off the floor and shaking - the whole thing, with me on it! Dr. Klein: Mrs. MacNeil, the problem with your daughter is not her bed, it's her brain. Chris: So, uhm, what causes this...? Dr. Klein: A lesion. A lesion in the temporal lobe. It's a kind of seizure disorder. Chris: Now look Doc, I really don't understand how her whole personality could change. Dr. Klein: The temporal lobe is very common...It could last for days or even weeks. It isn't rare to find destructive, even criminal behavior. Chris: Hey, do me a favor, will ya? T

The Exorcist, CC BY-SA 4.0

Chris: Well give me an example, like what specifically did she say? Dr. Klein: Specifically Mrs. MacNeil she advised me to keep my fingers away from her goddamned cunt.

The Exorcist, CC BY-SA 4.0

Dr. Klein: She's heavily sedated. She'll probably sleep through tomorrow. Chris: What was going on in there? How could she fly off the bed like that? Dr. Klein: Pathological states can induce abnormal strength. Accelerated motor performance. Now, for example, say a 90 pound woman sees her child pinned under the wheel of a truck. Runs out and lifts the wheels a half a foot up off the ground - you've heard the story - same thing here. Same principle, I mean. Chris: So what's wrong with her? Dr. Klein: We still think the temporal lobe. Chris: Oh what are you talking about, for Christ's sakes? Did you see her or not? She's acting like she's fucking out of her mind, psychotic, like a... split personality or ... Dr. Klein: There haven't been more than a hundred authentic cases of so-called split personality, Mrs. MacNeil. Now I know the temptation is to leap to psychiatry. But any reasonable psychiatrist would exhaust the somatic possibilities first. Chris: So, what's next? Dr. Klein: A pneu

The Exorcist, CC BY-SA 4.0