Let There Be Light Page #3

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you.

Yeah.

What does she argue about?

Oh, every little thing.

If you sit down in the wrong

chair

or something like that.

Doesn't like the stuff we get in

the store.

Then she calms down.

Well, see, have you always

tried to please her?

Yes.

Always tried to please her.

I used to clean

the house with her

when I was smaller.

Well, now, why do you think

she argues like that?

Because she's sick?

Well, she doesn't try

to control her temper.

I see.

How about your father?

He's a swell guy.

He's a swell fellow, is he?

Gets kind of hot

tempered.

Since my mother's been sick it's

been costing a lot of money.

And he's lost a lot of

weight from worrying.

I see.

My mother argues with

him,

she wants to know where the

money is.

But I don't care about that,

long as everything turns out all

right.

Yeah.

Well, now, this jumping, what

does that make you think of?

Think about it a minute.

I can't help it.

It just jumps.

How about the legs?

Do you know anybody

that had any trouble with their

legs like that?

No, sir.

Except...

What did it make you think

of? Go on.

Except several...

several years ago...

...there was one

fellow,

he had something wrong with his

right leg.

Wound in the knee,

but he's walking today.

That hasn't bothered me.

Was that anything like your

leg?

No, he couldn't walk at

all.

He couldn't walk at all?

No.

What do you think of when

you can't walk like that?

I wish I could walk.

But what do you think of?

What comes to your mind

when you find that you can't

walk?

Just maybe I think

my mother and father should be

okay.

Sometimes I wonder.

Hope the war ends soon, and

things like that.

I see.

Nothing in particular.

Mm-hmm. And now the shakes

are gone, now, haven't they?

Yeah.

How about your legs?

They're good and strong.

They feel all right.

Move them.

Let's raise them.

I was able to raise

them before, but I can't walk.

How about them now?

They feel all right.

They feel good now,

as if you can walk on them,

don't they?

Toes feel numb.

Toes feel numb, but that's

going away, isn't it?

Yeah.

See? Raising them fine,

isn't it?

Yeah.

Now you're going to be able

to walk, aren't you?

I don't know.

Well, you're going to,

aren't you?

Yes, sir.

All right.

I'll walk.

I like walking.

You love walking.

Always been very fond of

walking.

Now you've found yourself unable

to walk.

Now you're going to get right up

and walk, right now.

All right, now let's sit up.

Sit up on the side of the bed.

Here you are.

That's fine.

All right, now stand up.

And look at that.

That good?

All right, now walk out here.

Walk over to the nurse all by

yourself.

That's the boy.

Walk over to the nurse.

You're just a little woozy.

That's the medicine.

Now come back to me.

Come back to me.

Open your eyes.

That's the boy.

Isn't that fine, isn't that

wonderful?

Sure.

All right, now again,

once more.

Careful.

I don't know how long I'm going

to be this way.

Oh, it's going to stay that

way.

It's going to stay,

because that's taken care of

your worry now.

All right, now come on back to

me,

and I'm going to let you go to

sleep.

When you wake up, you'll keep on

walking perfectly well.

How about it?

Thanks, sir.

Right-o.

All right, now let's get up on

here, and we'll go to sleep.

Now, there you go.

Now, I'm going to have you go

right to sleep.

When you wake up,

it'll be all right.

Thanks.

All right, sleep, Girardi.

The fact that he can

walk now

does not mean that his neurosis

has been cured.

That will require time.

But the way has been opened for

the therapy to follow.

Now a new way of living begins,

very different from the old one,

whose purpose was killing and

trying not to be killed.

Now in an environment of peace

and safety,

all the violence behind them,

they are building rather than

destroying.

Men have their choice of

occupational therapy.

Some find relaxation in

mechanical jobs.

Certain types of cases obtain

relief in precision work,

which answers their inner need

for order and certainty.

For sons and daughters and

nieces and nephews

and neighbors' kids, hobbyhorses

are turned out by the carload.

Physical reconditioning is not

the only purpose in sports,

which also serve to bring men

out of their emotional isolation

and back into group activity.

One of the most important

procedures

is group psychotherapy.

Here under the psychiatrist's

guidance

the patient learns to understand

something of the basic causes of

his distress.

As one of a group, he also

learns to understand

that his inner conflicts are,

with variations,

common to all men.

I think of it a little bit

like this.

We want to get you out of your

own feeling of isolation,

to get you to feel like you are

like other people.

In order to get to that, we have

to use knowledge as one thing,

and something else which has to

be added,

and that is an experience of

safety.

You could say it is almost the

core

of all our treatment methods--

development of knowledge of

oneself

with the accompanying safety

that it brings.

I'd like to see if we can get

some illustrations

of how one's personal safety

would stem from childhood

safety,

and how the childhood safety

itself

would stem from the parents'

safety.

My illustration, as a

child,

whenever I underwent any

experiences

that were frightening to me, I

never told my parents.

I kept it to myself.

While I was alone at night in my

room I'd call on God.

If I did anything wrong that I

was ashamed of,

I was ashamed to go to my

parents

and tell them what I had done.

So I kept it to myself.

And I used to...

I know I used to be in constant

fear that my parents

would find out my feelings.

Well, I wonder if there's

any of your mother's troubles

that you would know about.

No, my mother never

gave any of the children

any part of her troubles.

Well, that would be the

same thing that happened to you.

She didn't tell her troubles,

and you didn't tell yours.

You took your troubles to God,

and she probably did the same

thing.

Probably didn't even confide in

your father.

In other words, the kind of

method that you used

to get relief from anxiety was

really, we have to assume,

learned and felt right in your

home in the same kind of thing.

I think it was all

caused by

economic conditions in the

world.

I mean, people trying to comp...

compete with one another,

trying to get a better job,

trying to keep up with the

prices of living.

Things like that have caused a

lot of arguments in the home.

Mother and father arguing about

the price of food,

and that has a reflection on the

children, things like that.

So I think that was one of the

causes.

Was it worse not having

enough food to eat,

or the arguments between them?

Well, both.

I mean, there was...

Which was the worst,

though?

I guess the arguments.

Sure they were.

Of course they are.

Because I can't

remember about the food.

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