People are treacherous creatures!

One of my patients is back.  Not unusual at all. I don't know why, but I get along pretty well with this fellow. Most of my coworkers see him as cold and bitter, but for some reason he cracks me up.  He worked as a psych tech in his previous healthy life, so he's been in "the business" so to speak.  Well the last time he was in I asked him to make some sort of a list...maybe the pro's and con's of having a disabling illness (yes kids, there are pro's, but that's another post entirely), maybe his strengths and weakness's....neither of us could remember.   What I do remember was that the 1st thing on the list was his view of humankind, "people are treacherous creatures".  That was the moment we connected as 2 people vs nurse/patient.  Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with him, and I don't normally laugh "at" my patients, but this slammed my funny bone!  I laughed so hard I had tears streaming down my face, and I couldn't stop. So why was that a "moment"? Because he started laughing with me. It took him a bit, but we all know what it's like to be sitting with someone who is busting a gut laughing!  You either storm out of the room (looking back I'm surprised he didn't) or you join in...and he joined me.  So he has joined the ranks of "my favorite patients", and it's not a very long list.
This stay?? We have something new to add to our list of secret laughs. He was telling me why he couldn't return to his current residence. Gangs, cops and his internist.  They are all in it together. I LOVE THIS!!! So he's going through this long convoluted story and I say to him "geez, you have a fixed delusional system"!  It was an "ah ha" moment for me.  He didn't like the idea (can't say as I would either). In fact he got a little defensive...duh! The next morning when I brought him his meds, as I was leaving the room he said, "and I do NOT have fixed delusions". I said "oh yes you do" and dashed out of the room before he tried to explain why he didn't. I didn't have time.  See that's the thing about fixed delusions. They are FIXED!!! There is no convincing him otherwise.  The good news is that the ECT he was having did not effect his short term memory.  What would I do if it did?? He would forget that "people are treacherous creatures" and that his world is a fixed delusion. And then what would we laugh about?