The Exorcist (1973)

Robert Symonds: Dr. Taney

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Quotes 

• Dr. Taney : 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 MacNeil : So what's wrong with her?

  Dr. Klein : We still think the temporal lobe.

  Chris MacNeil : Oh what are you talking about, for Chrissakes? Did you see her or not? She's acting like she's fucking out of her mind, psychotic, like a... split personality or...

  Dr. Taney : 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 MacNeil : So, what's next?

  Dr. Taney : A pneumoencephalogram, I would think. Pin down that lesion. It will involve another spinal.

  Chris MacNeil : Oh, Christ.

  Dr. Taney : What we missed in the EEG and the arteriograms could conceivably turn up there. At least, it would eliminate certain other possibilities.