Te Great Gatsby :: Essays Papers

Te Great Gatsby Setting This story takes place at West Egg in Long Island, an unfashionable town. It is in the early 1900’s. Characters A. Nick Carraway- Nick is the story narrator. He is a young man from Minnesota who moves to the east after fighting in the First World War. He is Jay Gatsby’s next-door neighbor. B. Jay Gatsby- Jay is the title character. He is a wealthy man who lives in a gothic mansion in West Egg. He was born with the name Jay Gatz on farm in North Dakota. C. Daisy Buchanan- Daisy is Nick’s cousin. She is the woman with whom Gatsby is in love. She lives right across from Gatsby with her husband Tom. She is bitter and a little cynical. D. Tom Buchanan- Tom is Daisy’s husband. He is arrogant and hypocritical. E. Jordan Baker- Jordan is Daisy’s friend who becomes romantically involved with Nick during the story. She is a talented golfer but cheated her way into winning her first tournament. F. Myrtle Wilson- Myrtle is Tom’s lover. Her husband George owns a run-down garage. Summary Like the setting says, the story takes place at West Egg in Long Island. The narrator, Nick, is not like the people of West Egg. He drives out to East Egg to have dinner with his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom where he is introduced to Jordan Baker, the woman who he will begin a romantic relationship with. She informs Nick of Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s secret lover. As the summer goes on, Nick learns more about his mysterious neighbor Gatsby. He throws extravagant parties at his mansion every Saturday night to impress the women he loves, Daisy. Nick arranges for Gatsby and Daisy to reunite. After this they fall in love and start and affair. Tom finds out about his wife’s wrongdoings and confronts Gatsby at a suite in the Plaza Hotel in New York. Tom claims that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby could never understand. He also tells Daisy that Gatsby’s fortune comes from bootlegging illegal alcohol and other criminal activities. On their way home Nick, Jordan and Tom discover that Gatsby’s car struck and killed Myrtle, Tom’s lover. They rush back to Long Island where Nick learns from Gatsby that Daisy was driving the car that struck Myrtle, but Gatsby intends to take the blame.

The Importance of Early Childhood Cognitive Development Essay -- Biolo

The Importance of Early Childhood Cognitive Development America has many programs for graduating students that are involved with education and children. While any college student can appreciate education, I suspect that few understand the importance of early childhood development. Having committed to apply for a position in Teach for America, I want to better understand why it is so important to "get 'em while they're young." In 2001, the US Department of Education, Academy of the Sciences, and the Foundation for Child Development conducted a study on early childhood development. Several interesting, scientific ideas and trends on childhood development emerged from the study. The questions surrounding this research were: how important is the early life of a child? What early years are most important? Why are later years not more important? In order to better plan education policy, discussing these questions is necessary. The portion of the study I find most convincing is that regarding neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity, is the brain's ability to reorganize neural pathways based on new experiences. (1) Simply put, every day we experience and learn new things. In order to incorporate this new information into our brains, the brain must reorganize the way it processes that information. Thus, as we learn things, the brain changes. Neuroplasticity is important because, while it continues throughout the life of every individual, it is closely linked to the rate of brain development/growth. During rapid periods of brain growth, synaptic pruning occurs. Synaptic pruning is the elimination of synapses in the brain that are weaker facilitating growth of a stronger, more efficient brain. (2)As the brain grow... ...ost beneficial not only for their education, but also for the physical development of their brains. This information is useful in many fields of study- the sciences, sociology, political science, law, etc. Neurosciences still have much to develop on early childhood cognitive development. However, presently, the information seems to facilitate the creation of a proper education for young children. References 1)Neuroscience Consultant, Prepared by Erin Hoiland http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/plast.html 2)Synaptic Pruning in Development, Online Version of a Text http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/cachedpage/116010/2 3)Eager To Learn , Study, Online Version of Text http://books.nap.edu/books/0309068363/html/37.html#pagetop 4)US Department of Education , President Bush's Initiatives http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/read/ereadingsbr03/edlite-slide9.html

Michael Wigglesworths Wrathful Poetry Essay -- Michael Wigglesworth

Michael Wigglesworth's Wrathful Poetry Michael Wigglesworth was born in England in 1631. He came over to America with his family at the age of seven. He was raised in the town of New Haven, Connecticut until he went to Harvard at sixteen. He graduated in 1651 but remained a tutor for three years. He was called to the ministry and accepted a call to a church in Malden, Massachusetts, in 1655 and remained in that town the rest of his life. He had three wives and eight children. Wigglesworth was a small and extremely frail man. Due to his sickness, he went to Bermuda for seven months in 1663, and there he began to study medicine, which was his initial interest before the ministry. After this trip, he was a physician as well as a preacher. However, Wigglesworth was not known for his preaching. He was not very well liked in his hometown and turned to poetry due to his rejection in the pulpit. Samuel Sewall commenting on his death mentioned two things: the fact that he wrote "The Day of Doom" and that he was "very useful as a physician." The fact that Sewall did not comment about Wigglesworth being a preacher helps verifies that he was not well known for his preaching. Wigglesworth wrote a lot of poetry, but his piece "The Day of Doom" was by far his most famous work The poem sold 1800 copies in its first year of publication, and sold many copies after the first year as well. About one in every twenty people in New England bought a copy, and it was supposedly America's first bestseller. Children memorized verses of the poem along with their catechism, and others memorized it as well. This poem affected the people of his day and the new American culture. The poem was written in common hymn meter, which made it easy to memor... ...rtheless, it should be read and remembered for a few reasons. First, it captures the spirit of one of the main religious bodies at the beginning of this Country, Puritanism. The Puritans were one of the first peoples to come over to America and set up a colony, and for this we owe them our gratitude and remembrance. Also, the fact that this poem was probably America's first bestseller is reason enough to read it. It is important to know our heritage. So, let's celebrate America's religious and literary heritage by reading "The Day of Doom" by Michael Wigglesworth. Works Cited: Lawson, Stephen. "About Michael Wigglesworth and His Poetry." Ed. Milton Stem. New York: Viking, 1962. http://www.puritansermons.com/poetry/wigglife.htm. "Michael Wigglesworth" The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 5th ed. Vol. 1. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: Norton, 1998. 283-284.

How the emotion affects the person Essay

In the modern world, emotions play such a large role in almost everything people do, it is hard to make a decision which will get the most desirable results. It is true, however it is looked upon, that decisions and choices are mainly made by the emotion that the person is feeling towards the topic. A kind person will go join the Peace Corps and help aide the poor and starving, while a person with no pity towards much of anything will not care enough to do something of that nature. Pity is one of the key emotions in making decisions. If someone feels sorry for another individual, they are much more likely to go out of their way to help this person. Whether it is from dropping a few coins into a beggar’s cup, or just helping out a friend, people have to go out of their way because of pity. Pity is more than a simple emotion which can lead people do to things for others, however. It can bring upon new feelings within an individual and help them to achieve a higher level of consc iousness. Decisions are intertwined with everyone in the worlds lives, and if they do not begin to see the reasons behind their decisions, it could have devastating results. Pity towards an individual can have an effect on almost everything in the world. Whether it is bargaining for the price of clothing, to giving money to a poor person, there can be all kinds of changes depending on a person’s circumstance. This, however, is not a good thing because there are always people in the world who do not care about others and can â€Å"con† someone and take advantage of them. Although pity can be good or bad, it is mainly shown as a sign of weakness in a person. It can make someone decide to do irrational things for another and bring them in danger. People say that having a ruthless leader would be bad, but they are wrong because being ruthless does not mean being evil or mean, it just means knowing that feelings cannot get in the way of decisions. Emotions are much more than influences in our decisions, however. They play a key role is almost everything in the world. If there was no emotion in any novels or movies or anything of that nature, how would we be able to enjoy life? Music is basically an extension from our own human emotions, and that is why music can be integrated in much of our situations of life. In movies, it would not sound right if a swinging beat was used in a war scene, or vice  versa. Thus, it is simple to say that emotions do play a role in our lives. The effects of emotions in our lives can vary from person to person, but no matter how hard someone tries, they cannot escape having and feeling these things. Whether it is good or bad, choices are made depending on the emotions involved in the consequences. Pity is one of the major feelings dealt with when faced with a decision about another individual. Are they poor? In need of help? These are both basic questions that are asked to oneself when deciding on what to do in a situation. Although it is impossible to stay out of the grasp of emotions, it is very possible to realize the effects of them, and make decisions based upon the knowledge at hand.

Comparison of the Ant and the Grasshopper Essay

Some people live life like it is their last day alive, spending everything. Some other people save every penny they own. Which way of life produces a better life? What should people do with their money? In the fable, â€Å"The Ant and the Grasshopper† and the modern fable, â€Å"The Richer, the Poorer,† the main characters reflect two opposite views of how to live life. Both the ant from â€Å"The Ant and the Grasshopper,† and Lottie from â€Å"The Richer, the Poorer,† concern themselves with preparation and comforts of life. For example, the ant from â€Å"The Ant and the Grasshopper† was a very hard worker. During the summer, he worked hard, saving food for the winter. He sacrificed fun and other obstacles so he wouldn’t starve to death during winter. Likewise, Lottie is similar to the ant, even though she is human. She was a laborer, who was always trying to hold up a job. She sacrificed buying candy as a child, and saved every penny that she earned, so she could use it when she really needed it. Lottie lived a very comfortable life, and often scolded her sister, Bess, for the way Bess didn’t save money like her. Near the end of the story, Lottie lets Bess move in with her, and had to do loads of work to prepare and take care of her. Thus, these two characters plan to keep their lives secure with hard work, saving, and sacrifice. Unlike Lottie and the ant, Bess and grasshopper live for the day. For example, the Grasshopper, from â€Å"The Ant and the Grasshopper,† spent the summer singing and having fun, living his life to the fullest. Likewise, Bess, from â€Å"The Richer, the Poorer,† spends her time traveling the world. She spends every penny she earns, living life full of laughter and fun, even though she was in rags, not riches. She owns very few possessions, but still has fun with her life. These two characters live a very fun, joyful life. These four characters learn a valuable lesson. They shouldn’t work all the time so they can enjoy life later without enjoying it at the present, but they should not just spend everything they have, because they need some planning in their life so they don’t live in rags. Lottie wasted a lot of her life planning and saving for the future, while Bess lived a fun life, but had hardships in her life that Lottie never had. And had the Grasshopper prepared, he wouldn’t have had to be hungry for the winter. One should balance work and play to have the best life.

Plato and Aristotle Similarities and Differences Essay

What factors, for Plato and Aristotle, were critical in the construction of a state? Before one examines the construction of the State in the eyes of two famous classical thinkers, one must first understand what a State is. A State can be defined as a group of people settled in a specific geographical location where, through interdependency and order, a livelihood can be achieved. Plato and Aristotle, both great philosophers, contributed to the world of politics today, their views and ideas on what should be considered in the construction of a State. Plato (427-347 B. C. ), famous for his work â€Å"The Republic†, viewed the state as a machine which can be constructed systematically. In contrast to his former mentor, Aristotle, a former student of Plato, regarded the State as an organism with the attributes of a living being, stating that its emergence is a natural process. Both ideas are very influential and crucial in examining and understanding their contributions made to politics and society today. In the eyes of Plato, one of the main factors critical to the construction of the State was the division of the human soul. Within Plato’s division of the soul, there were 3 divisions: – â€Å"the rational†, which was regarded as the highest part of the soul and, as a result, gave particular people the ability to reason; â€Å"the spirited†, which had the capacity to follow and asset the claims of reason; and lastly, â€Å"the appetitive†, which Plato found as the lowest part of the soul and sheltered desires and emotions. The Rational reflected the rulers/philosophers who were small in groups but ruled over a much larger group of producers. They occupied the top of the class structure and because of their ability to reason, people believed that they alone had the insights and solutions to human problems. The Spirited followed the Rational and consisted of soldiers and administrators who supported and were controlled by the Government, hence their capacity to follow. The Appetitive represented the producers in society. Making up the majority of the population, producers were mainly artisans, traders and farmers who provided the basic services to society and were never allowed to state their opinions and feelings, thus their harbored emotions. Such a class structure was referred to as an aristocracy, which Plato thought of as the ideal State. It was this threefold division of the soul which influenced the division of society, therefore making it a critical factor in Plato’s construction of the state. Another factor which was very influential in Plato’s  construction of the State lay in the process of selective breeding. Selective breeding can be considered the pairing of parents to ensure the highest physical and mental qualities of the offspring. Such offspring were to become the next generation of rulers by the age of fifty. Plato believed that the selection of rulers could be best made through lengthened education and training which were reserved for only the ruling class in the form of music, literature, military instructions and so forth, to enhance these qualities. According to Plato, government and ruling must not be left to chance. It is through a planned program of training that kings are born, made and sculpted into society. This transmitted process is significant to the construction of the State in the eyes of Plato. Contrary to Plato’s views, Aristotle had his own vision of the construction of the State and rather than viewing the state as a piece of machinery, he saw it as a ‘natural entity. ’ Aristotle spoke of the construction of the State as an organism, in which the State was the highest form of all communities. One of the main factors in Aristotle’s eyes, critical to construction of the State, was the belief that the State was natural. In this perspective, the family, the village and the State were 3 stages in the growth of human relations. Aristotle saw the family as the first stage or form of association where mankind is reproduced and men’s primary daily wants and needs such as food, clothing and shelter are supplied. The second form of association of the state was the village in which men search for something more than the basic wants supplied in the family. In this stage, man satisfies his elementary needs such as a desire for companionship and loyalty. The third and highest form of community is the State. It is within this stage that moral values and beliefs are established through social institutions which are implemented throughout the State, such as the church and school. The state exists solely for the purpose of ensuring that man realizes himself and lives the good life. Thus, Aristotle emphasizes on the recognition of the State as a natural process which is critical for the proper construction of a state. Moreover to Aristotle’s belief of the State as an organic concept, another essential factor which Aristotle considers in the construction of a state is the framing of an appropriate system of government. Aristotle recognized 3 forms of true governments: – monarchy, aristocracy and constitutional government. Monarchy consisted of one ruler with the best features, qualities and merits who governed the majority of the population. Aristocracy consisted of a small group of rulers governing a large group of people. Aristotle defined it as â€Å"government formed of the best men absolutely†. Finally, a constitutional government was one where a large group of citizens administered for the common interest of the people. Aristotle, like Plato, regarded the aristocracy, in addition to the monarchy, as the ideal forms of government as they both consider the virtue of rulers above the consent of the ruled. Thus, to Aristotle, the framing of a system of government was essential in the construction of a state. In retrospect, in assessing the various factors which were significant to the construction of a state, both philosophers possessed dissimilarities in how they viewed the entire entity of the State but agreed in the decision of which government should be implemented within the state. These factors proved very influential in today’s conceptions and understanding of society and are important components of the work done by both classical thinkers and the present study of politics.

Objective Relations Theory

Projective Identification copyright 1996 Hannah Fox, CSW, BCD All rights reserved – may not be reproduced without permission of Hannah Fox ([email  protected] com) This document can be found at: http://www. object-relations. com This presentation will explore several concepts and techniques within the Object Relations theory of family therapy which, if understood, provides a framework for looking at couples and families. Before talking about this approach to family therapy, I would like to explain what object relations theory is all about.Object Relations Theory was originated in England by a group of British psychoanalysts, including Klein, Balint, Fairburn, Winnicott, and Guntrip. Object relations theory was a break from Freud's drive model, and differs from it as follows: Freud's model held that a newborn infant is driven by animal instincts, such as hunger, thirst, and pleasure, but cannot relate to others. Relationships with others only develop later in the course of sa tisfying those needs. In this sense, Freud's model considers relationships to be secondary.In contrast, object relations theory maintains that the infant can relate to others at a very early age and that relationships with others are, therefore, primary. The drive to attach oneself to an object is considered to be the major motivating force. Since we are talking about object relations theory, this is a good time to ask what an object is. In object relations theory, the word object is used with a very specific meaning. It's not literally a physical person, but an internal mental structure that is formed throughout early development.This mental structure is built through a series of experiences with significant others through a psychic process called introjection. Because an infant's earliest experiences are usually with its mother, she is usually the first internal object formed by the infant. Eventually, the father and other significant people also become internalized objects. Intro jection, the process of creating internal mental objects, leads to another process called splitting. Splitting occurs because the infant cannot tolerate certain feelings such as rage and longing, which occur in all normal development.As a result, the infant has to split off parts of itself and repress them. What happens to those repressed split-off parts? They are dealt with through another important process, called projective identification. Projective identification itself is a very specific part of object relations theory. It is a defense mechanism which was conceptualized by Melanie Klein in 1946, having evolved from her extensive study and work with children. According to Klein, projective identification consists of splitting off parts of the self, projecting them into another person, and then identifying with them in the other person.For example, the earliest relationship the infant has with its mother is feeding and touching, but the mother is not always able to respond quick ly enough to the infant's need. Since the natural rage and longing the infant feels at such times are intolerable, to survive these feelings the infant â€Å"splits them off† and represses them from its consciousness. The â€Å"split off†feelings can be thought of as other parts of the self (ego). When such splitting takes place, the infant is free of the rage but has placed that part of itself inside the mother.To make itself whole again it must identify with the mother. The mother may or may not allow herself to become the cntainer for the infant's negative feelings. Even if she doesn't, the projective identification still occurs. The above process begins in the first half year of life, known as the paranoid-schizoid position. It is characterized by an ability to distinguish good feelings from bad, but an inability to distinguish the mother from the self. Depending on how consistent the mothering is, the infant may or may not progress to a higher level of development known as the depressive position.In the depressive position, which starts at about eight months of age, the child takes back its bad feelings from the mother and separates from her. The mother is now seen as a separate object, with both good and bad feelings of her own. The infant is aware of its own good and bad feelings. For a child to reach this level of development, the earlier mothering must be consistent. The mother must have accepted most of the child's projected feelings. A child who reaches the depressive position will, in adulthood, be capable of experiencing, at best, such feelings as empathy, or will at least become neurotic.In contrast, if the mothering is not consistent, the child can't take back its projected feelings and splitting continues both inside and outside the child. It remains in the paranoid-schizoid position or, at best, a precarious form of the depressive position. This type of development is associated with borderline personalities. In the above infant- mother example, the repressed parts of the self, if unresolved, will remain repressed into adulthood. Those parts will govern the choice of marital partner and the nature of marital relationships, and by extension the nature of relationships with children.By the time the couple or family come to therapy the projective identification process has likely progressed to the point of being obvious to the therapist, and will be seen in the members' behavior toward each other. This is usually not so in individual therapy because it often takes time to build the transference relationship with the therapist. So what does this mean for the therapist? What does a therapist have to know in order to work with a family, using the object relations approach? The therapist needs to be trained in individual developmental heory from infancy to aging and to understand that the internal object world is built up in a child, modified in an adult and re-enacted in the family. The family has a developmental life cycle of its own, and as it goes through its series of tasks from early nurturing of its new members, to emancipation of its adolescents, to taking care of its aging members, the family's adaptation is challenged at every stage by unresolved issues in the adult members' early life cycle. Conflicts within any of its individual family members may threaten to disrupt the adaption previously achieved.If any member is unable to adapt to new development, pathology, like projective identification, becomes a stumbling block to future healthy development. The clinical approach is to develop, with the family, an understanding of the nature and origins of their current interactional difficulties, starting from their experience in the here- and-now of the therapeutic sessions, and exploring the unconscious intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts that are preventing further healthy development. Interpretation and insight are thus the agents of family change.By uncovering the projective ide ntifications that take place among family members, and having individuals take back their split-off parts, members can be freed to continue healthy development. If further therapy is indicated, individual therapy would be a recommendation. Symptom reduction in individuals is not necessarily a goal here. In fact, individual family members may become more symptomatic as projective identificationsare taken back and the members become more anxious. To do this, the therapist needs the following four capabilities: . The ability to provide a â€Å"holding environment†for the family – a place which is consistent – so that eventually the family comes to feel comfortable enough to be themselves in the presence of the therapist. 2. An ability to understand the â€Å"theme†of each session, so that a broad theme can be identified over the course of treatment. 3. An ability to interpret the latent content of patients' manifest statements. 4. An understanding of unconsc ious processes like transference and countertransference.Given those tools, it is the therapist's job to uncover the projective identifications in the family that prevent the children from having a healthy development. Once these projections are uncovered, and the split-off parts given back to the family members they belong to, children are freer to continue healthy development. Having introduced projective identification, I'd like to show how this process operates later in life-in couples and families-and is a framework for doing couple and family therapy. I'm going to present two cases-one of a couple and one of a family-to show how projective identification works.A male patient of mine with little ambition fell in love with a woman who subsequently pushed him to be ambitious. As it turned out, the woman had been repressing her own ambition under pressure from a father who didn't believe women should work. This woman was quite intelligent and obtained a professional degree, yet sh e chose to stifle her ambition in order to please her father. She remained dependent on her father, both emotionally and financially. The husband, my patient, was a professional but quite unambitious. His family's philosophy was that one is lucky to have a job and pay the bills.His father had held the same low paying job for twenty years although he, too, had a professional degree. So why did these two people get married? Since it was unacceptable for her to be ambitious, the wife needed someone to contain those feelings for her. My patient was the ideal object because, although he had an inner ambition, he had no parental support for these strivings. Therefore, he was predisposed to accept and collude in his wife's projection. What is the effect of projective identification when a couple has children?The following example shows how parents use their children as objects. Fern was a woman in her second marriage with two adolescent children. When Fern was a child, her mother favored h er brother. The message she received from her mother was that men were important and had to be taken care of, while women were stupid and born to serve men. Both of Fern's husbands agreed with her mother's philosophy, so Fern spent most of her married life serving them. When the family came to see me, both children were having emotional problems. The son was a heavy user of pot and cocaine.His sister had emotional and learning problems in school. Fern had projected into her son that males were special and needed to be taken care of. It's not hard to see why the son colluded with his mother. The rewards of accepting her projected feelings were too hard to resist, so when he reached adolescence he satisfied his excessive dependency needs with drugs. The message Fern's daughter received was that she was unimportant and stupid. Why did Fern project these feelings onto her daughter? Fern grew up unable to develop her own career goals because her other ignored her wishes to go to college. For Fern to feel sufficiently competent and achieve some career success, she had to get rid of feelings that she was stupid and unimportant. So she projected those feelings on to her daughter and was then able to start a small business. To avoid being totally rejected by her mother, the daughter colluded by remaining stupid and unimportant to herself. Fern's reenactment with her daughter of her mother's relationship with her is a form of projective identification called â€Å"identification with the aggressor,†because Fern is acting as if she is her own mother and her daughter is her (when she was a child).Fern's relationship to her son is also similar to the relationship Fern's mother had to Fern's brother. Because Fern is treating her children so differently, when they grow up they will have very different views of this family. This explains why, in therapy, siblings often talk about the same family very differently. Notice how unresolved feelings from childhood, which Fern split off and repressed, greatly affected her relationship with both children. What do you think is going on in her second marriage? Now I will present an actual transcript of part of a session I recently had with this family.As you will see, it illustrates the process of projective identification and will serve as a basis for further discussion. T: Fern, I wonder, when Donald was talking about being like Roberta and John asked him a question how did you feel? F: What do you mean how did I feel? T: When John asked Donald when he figured out that he was like Roberta and Donald said just now. J: How do you feel about him saying just now. T: And you changed the subject and I wondered what you were feeling. F: I don't know. I T: Donald owned up to some feelings that he was like his father and that part of what he saw in Roberta was like himself.F: Donald is definitely part of D: No but what she's saying is that you changed the subject. That is why she's wondering if you have some feeli ngs about that. T: Exactly. You seemed to have moved away from what was going on here. John was talking to Donald R: She doesn't want us to be like our father. T: Maybe that was upsetting to you? R: He wasn't good to her. D: Subconsciously maybe. It's deep but it's there. F: Well, I don't like Martin, naturally. It's true. I don't like him – I don't think he's a nice person. R: You don't like him at all? D: She loves him but doesn't like himF: I loved him but I never liked him as a person. I never thought he was a good person; that he really cared about me, that he took care of me, that he was ever concerned with me. I remember a couple of things that – I remember having a bloody nose one night when I was pregnant and he went out to play racketball and left me alone. Things like that – He was mean to me – he had no compassion for me. D: That's one thing, I'm not like my father. F: I'm not saying – I'm trying to say I see certain characteristics of their father in them. T: How does that make you feel?F: How does that make me feel? I don't know. I guess part of it, not too good because I would rather them be above that, that is, above that anger, why can't they rise above that anger. I don't want them to be like that because it didn't get Martin anyplace in life. J: I have a very deep question. F: I don't know if I want to answer it. J: You may not but how can you find that with Roberta and Donald being so much alike in prsonality, like Martin, how do you separate Donald's being like Martin and accepting it from Roberta and saying Roberta is just like her father and not accepting it?F: Because Donald never directed his anger at me as a person, as a human being. In other words he never – he might have been angry but he never said to me – he never was mean to me, whereas Roberta has been mean to me, attacked me as a person, Donald never attacked me as a person. T: Donald attacked himself as a person. D: Hmm. T: By t aking drugs. F: But he never attacked me as a person. D: Never, I'm not a mean person. I don't have that mean streak in me. T: You sure? F: You may have it in you D: I don't have a mean streak. F: Sure, everyone T: Who did you direct that meanness to?Roberta directs it out to her mother and who did you direct it to? D: I direct it to her. T: No R: No you directed it at yourself. D: Myself, yeah – I'm mean to myself. F: You were destructive to yourself. T: So what D: But that's different from being destructive to other human beings. F: No, maybe you would have been better off being mean to me or somebody else. Or to your father. R: Let's get back to Uncle John's question. J: No this is part of the answer. D: Yeah – I'm mean to myself. I still am. But I don't destroy myself with anything – with any kind of substances, but I still am.R: What do you mean, you still are? D: I'm hard on myself, critical of myself. R: See, you would never think that of Donald because h e walks around like he's above the world. He does. T: But why would somebody walk – D: But I've been working on that very heavily now T: But why would someone D: That's the way I am; it's the way I am. T: Why would someone walk around like that. D: It's very basic – when I was on drugs and everything like that and I'm fully aware of it, aware that I'm conceited and like I have that air about me – I'm fully aware of it.When I was on drugs I had that part to me but it wasn't as strong as it is now. T: You weren't aware of it then? D: I wasn't really in control of the fact that I control my conceitedness now – I choose to put that on because I have nothing, I have nothing else now. T: Right D: It seems it's like my only defense, to be arrogant and to be conceited because I don't have anything else to back me up so I figure that wall. R: Why do you need – I don't need anything. D: Roberta – because when I was on the drugs and everything like tha t, it was a great wall for me to keep everybody out.Now I want everybody to think big things. Discussion Now let's look at the latent content of this session and identify the projective identifications. Fern was angry at Roberta and not at Donald — why? As John pointed out with his question, Fern saw Roberta and Donald very differently, because of her projective identifications into them. Fern saw Roberta as bad and stupid, just as her mother viewed her when she was a child. She put all her badness and negative feelings into Roberta. Roberta then acted out Fern's feelings by being emotionally disturbed and acting stupid.Her emotional problems exacerbated what had been a genuine perceptual impairment. Because of her projective identification, Fern saw Donald as the good son who needed special attention and care, which was what Fern had seen between her own mother and her brother. Because Donald was not fully accepted by his mother, especially for those qualities that were like his natural father, he acted out his mother's feelings. He was good to her but repressed the rejected parts, turning them against himself by secretly taking drugs. Yet, his mother continued to hold him in high regard, even after his habit had been found out.What Fern did was re-create the family constellation in which she had grown up. Because both children were carrying out their mother's inner life, they were unable to grow and develop their own healthy structures. The next step in therapy was to get Fern to take back the split-off parts of herself: the devaluing of her daughter and the overvaluing of her son. This should help the children take back the part of themselves which they split off and repressed. In subsequent sessions, Fern and I explored what it was like growing up with her mother.She explained that her mother told her that she was stupid and that her brother was special. Fern's daughter told Fern that she was doing the same thing as her mother and that the daughter felt stupid. Fern responded that she had never meant to treat her daughter as stupid. She also realized that her son had many problems and was not so special. In doing so, Fern reclaimed her split-off parts, freeing her daughter to continue a healthier development. Her son was able to leave home and become more independent.