Læknablaðið - 01.06.1961, Side 40

72
LÆKNABLAÐIÐ
earlier years, in the same house,
the same neighborhood or at
least in the same town. Such
continuity makes for greater
opportunities for developing
friendship in the preschool and
grammar school periods. The
parents’ participation in com-
munity affairs as in parent-
teacher groups aids in develop-
in this feeling of belonging.
Living in smaller connnunities,
close to a park, even short sum-
mer vacations, offer chances for
those important contacts with
nature. A person with such ex-
periences in relatedness, would
lie more availahle to further
possibilities witli teachers, in
college, in employment situa-
tions and in the armed forces
which has come to be a usual
experience for almost every
male. We know how essential
it is to develop these feelings
of human relatedness, pre-
requisite for genuine self-reli-
ance, and yet how difficult in
a world in tension and witli the
break-down of those institu-
tions which had been the main
sources of healthy values, tlie
family, religion and decent
societal values.
When we come to assets in
the present in the indvidual,
what we Iiope to find are the
constructive effects of having
productively experienced these
assets in his life to date. If these
effects were not fairly visible,
we might wonder if we were
not dealing with a more recent
increase of neurotic problems
due to an accession of environ-
mental stresses not particularly
of that individual’s making.
Wlien we speak of assets in the
present, they are understand-
ahly different in a person of
20 or 60. The wisdom gained
from a long and productive life
is a future possibility for a
younger person with his vitality
in his world to be. Both may
liave areas of productive inter-
est in work and leisure, the time
and the finances to pay for
psychotherapv. In their environ-
ment might be constructive re-
lationsliips with their family,
their friends and in their work.
A possible and important ex-
pression of these might be en-
couraging and supporting atti-
tudes toward a patient’s de-
cision to work in therapy or at
least an attitude of neutrality.
One of the more important as-
sets a patient could have in his
environment is a therapist with
whom he feels he wants to and
can work and who in turn feels
likewise and is capable of doing
so. Tliis environmental asset is
crucial because of its continui-
ty, its duration and because liis
therapist will be a focal figure
in helping him resolve existing
problems and opening up new
vistas of growing possibilities
in his life.