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Griffin Daily News
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• Competent dream interpretation by expert psy
chotherapists can be very effective in getting to the
source of a patient’s problem. Bungled dream in
terpretation by a faddist or a quack who is not qual
ified, however, could possibly cause severe damage to
the mental and emotional stability of anyone who
is troubled by his dreams and seeks help from other
than professionally trained sources.
Even insignificant dreams that a person rarely
remembers upon awakening can be given such
varied interpretation that almost anything can be
read into them, and who’s to say which meaning
is the right one—if any one is?
Simple dreams, "fun” dreams, recurrent dreams.
MIRROR OF YOUR MIND • BY JOHN CONWELL
• Should a child tell his parents every problem ?
Os course; a youngster should be
made to feel that he is able to come
to his mother and father with any
thing that is on his mind.
Naturally, too, problems and the
discussion of them should be a "one
way street.” Parental ears should
always be open to what sons and
daughters have to say; but a careful
control should be exercised when
grownups are tempted to tell their
children of their problems. Even
if knowing the troubles of their par
ents would bring children under
more tractable control, the benefits
that might be gained by governing
behavior in this way could be great
ly offset by pathological reactions.
Feelings of insecurity and a guilt
complex—perhaps as a result of as
suming partial responsibility for
problems that are besetting their
parents—may seriously affect per
sonality adjustment and even the
mental health of the youngsters.
This is not to say that children
should be kept completely in the
dark when the parents are strug
gling with serious problems that
2
could affect the course of the entire
family relationship.
But it does take skillful parents
to know just how much to tell
their children. The grownups want
their youngsters to learn to face
reality and to accept responsibility;
yet they don’t want to saddle them
with problems they are still too
immature to handle.
Just about the correct, precise
measure of parent-child relationship
in this regard apparently seems to
have been achieved in the nationally
prominent Kennedy family. The late
Senator Robert Kennedy summed V
up rather well in an essay he had
written three years before his as
sassination, and his words were spok
en in a eulogy his brother, Sena
tor Edward Kennedy, delivered at
the funeral of their father, Ambas
sador Joseph Kennedy. In the tribute
to his father. Sen. Robert Kennedy
put it this way: “Our opponents be
came his opponents, our problems his
problems, although he was careful
to make sure that his enemies were
not to become our enemies.”
disturbing dreams- these are all the result of ac
tions of the conscious and the unconscious. If ever
anyone were to try to read any interpretation into
a dream, he would have to know the history of the
dreamer. He would have to be familiar with the
dreamer’s conscious thoughts when he is awake, and
he would have had to learn the unconscious drives
and impulses.
If the dream is simple, a person is not going to
want to bother a psychiatrist about trying to find
out its meaning. In the first place, it would be eco
nomically impractical. The dreamer will wonder
why he went to all the trouble to learn what prob
ably will turn out to be some pretty boring details
(c 1970. Kinx Features Syndicate. Inc.)
• Must psychotherapy go on and on ?
Yes. Brief psychotherapy might be
the answer to moving the treatment
of mental and emotional problems
“out of the mysterious realms of
psychiatrists' rows and into the com
munity." That is the thought ex
pressed by Dr. Harry H. Garner,
who is chairman of the department
of psychiatry and neurology at Chi
cago’s Mount Sinai Hospital Medi
cal Center.
“In this way," said Dr. Garner,
speaking at a conference sponsored
by the Chicago Medical School and
Mount Sinai, “the techniques avail
able for treating larger numbers of
people can be utilized fully, to bring
the cost within the middle and lower
income range."
Dr. Gamer, whose views were re
ported by “Medical Tribune,” said
that in one type of brief psycho
therapy the physician is able to
spend less time in trying to deter
mine why the patient has a prob
lem and more to helping him solve
Jie problem, “or at least cope with
it as it stands."
Another speaker at the conference,
about the conscious action that stimulated his sim
ple dream.
More serious recurrent and disturbing dreams
require someone with the training and skill of a pro
fessional therapist to deal with. To have anyone
other than a competent specialist interpret compli
cated and problem-provoking dreams is not only
delaying the care and attention that should be given
to them; it is also putting off possible treatment
that might be needed by the dreamer. On top of all
that, consulting an unqualified dream interpreter
might also result in the need for additional therapy
to correct the damage that is often the result of
amateurs dealing with mental problems.
E. Lakin Phillips, Ph.D., professor
of psychology at George Washington
University, said: “The task of psy
chotherapy is no longer that of re
constructing the past, of extracting
memory excerpts (especially those
allegedly repressed), or of examin
ing the meaning of past experi
ences.” A great deal can be learned
about a person from the results of
his behavior. An expert therapist
can tell why his patients act the
way they do and what they mean by
their actions from the consequences
of their behavior.
Dreams, too, although they are
associated with extended analysis,
are useful in therapy "for cutting
comers by getting to the core of
the patient’s problem through direct
interpretations,” said Dr. Edward
C. Whitmount, of the Jungian In
stitute of New York. He told the
conference, dreams “can be inval
uable for shortening therapy.”
Perhaps brief therapy will encour
age people who need help—but are
scared off by the prospects of end
less sessions of analysis.