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• Yes. And it is not always because the aged are
in their “second childhood" and sharpsters find
cheating the old as easy as taking candy from a baby.
Os course, the decline in their mental agility does
have a bearing on old folks' inability to guard
against the schemes of the fast talkers. But that
factor would be neutralized If it weren't for the more
serious and direct causes that lead to old people
being bilked so effortlessly. One of these points is
resignation—a feeling of giving up that the oldsters
develop. Perhaps all their lives they have had their
“guard up” against schemers—some of them might
have even done a little double-dealing themselves.
But now, faced by the reality that thejr do not have
IRR O R Q F YOU R MIND * BY JOHN CON WELL
• Should fairy tales be banned ?
No. You can find behavior scientists
and child psychologists on both sides
of this question—a problem that has
probably puzzled parents since Jack
first sowed the seeds for his bean
stalk. But fairy tales have been
filling a psychological need ages
before the science of human behav
ior was called psychology.
The antl-fairy-tale crowd claim
the improbabilities of fantasy put
the youngsters out of touch with
reality. Other fairy-tale critics find
the stories unacceptable for chil
dren's ears because of the double
entendres that can be read into
them, or because seme of the tales
are too horrifying and frightening.
Pro-fairy-tale behaviorists find
the stories excellent for stimulating
the children's imagination and
something that passive, TV-watch
ing youngsters rarely get the oppor
tunity to exercise. The fairy-tale
proponents concede the improbabil
ities found in these stories may en
courage a child to indulge in fan
tasy, but they contend that the
youngster Is better off for having
too many years left anyhow, they often give them
selves over to the machinations of those who would
dupe them. It might be a glib salesman with some
gaudy, useless device to relieve a condition the old
person is suffering from, or it might be a circle of
relatives who are plotting to get their hands on the
family fortune before it is dissipated by the medical
care needed by the aged relation or some “balmy”
bequests he wants to put into his will.
Even more cruel and tragic is a third condition
that makes it easy for the fraud to cheat the old
people. And the cruelty is not practiced alone by
the dupester. It is evident in many cases in the way
an old person’s family treats him and even may be
experienced fairy tales than never
to have known the imaginative
world of fantasy.
Fairy tales widen the horizon of
the developing child; and his ability
to return to reality and distinguish
it from fantasy strengthens his ego
and his confidence that he is a hu
man being important to himself and
to others.
The youngster is able to identify
with real idols, and still “weather"
the shock if and when they no longer
serve as targets for him to “hone
in on." A parent who had been
looked up to as a hero, for instance,
will eventually turn out to be an
ordinary mortal; but the child, con
ditioned to differentiate between
fantasy and reality, is able to appre
ciate the experience of having had
an idol and yet can withstand the
"humanization" of his hero without
traumatic shock.
As the child matures, bp realizes
it is indeed an impossible dream to
expect to live happily ever after, but
he knows he will be happier for hav
ing dreamed that drcam at all.
• Are writers good marriage risks ?
Yes. But being married to a writer
presents some special problems
and it doesn't make much difference
whether the writing is done at home
or in an office.
Probably the biggest problem
the point that may cause the great
est friction—is, surprisingly enough,
communications. That may sound
silly, since, you would think, the one
thing a writer would be expert in
would be communicating with an
other person. But writing is a per
sonal, private "happening," and it
makes no difference whether the
husband is the writer or the wife.
The couple may be in the middle
of dinner even in the middle of a
sentence and if an inspirational
thought should come up, right away
the writer will try to fit it in
somewhere. When a husband, say, is
trying to make his point across the
table, he knows he has "lost” his
writer-wife for the moment when
"that look” crosses her face. He may
continue talking, but they are not
communicating until that inspira
tion has been "programmed" through
attributed to modern methods and attitudes of deal
ing with the aged. Shunned by his family and
sloughed off by society, the old person in many in
stances is disheartened by the feeling he has that
he is no longer of any earthly‘use to anyone until he
dies and any material estate goes to benefit those
to whom he bequests it.
It is no wonder then that the oldster is ready to
listen to the only words of comfort and sympathy
that he may get. He doesn't care about the sincerity
of what he hears, just that he hears some concern
expressed for himself.
All he wants is for someone to care—even if that
person only cares to cheat him.
all the channels of her creative
mind.
When the husband Is the writer
and he is working at home, it is
better if he shuts himself up some
where while he has his sessions
with the muse. He is of no earthly
use as a sounding board if his wife
is in the same room with him dis
cussing plans for a dinner party,
while he is in the process of trying
to bend a phrase to a thought he has
in mind for his work.
Yet there are fringe benefits for
a husband who is married to a writ
er working at home. For one thing,
she will be pretty well "talked out"
if she has been busy at her type
writer all day. And if he has fixed
up a place for her to work in the
basement of their home, where she
can hear the washing machine, the
dryer, the freezer, or the heating
system all going at once and mak
ing the utility meters spin like tops
then he knows she knows she had
belter keep turning out the verbiage
to satisfy her creative urge and
help pay the bills.