Viewing page 9 of 12

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

of human nature - that of the reasonable man calculating means-end relationships, freed from the distractions and temptations of the passions. In classic psychoanalytic theory the the unconscious is associated with the id, that irrational, and the primary process - sharply contrasted with the ego, the rational, the conflict free and the secondary process. In clinical work we operationally modify the sharpness of defensive and dynamically relevent operations of conscious and pre-conscious life. If however we shift the frame from the clinical situation to so-called normal or objective problem-solving behavior we often lose sight of the basic fact that conscious cognitive behavior is replete with basic assumption derivatives and defensive operations. Let us be clear - this is not to reduce distorted cognitive operations - to presumed universal underlying dynamic conflict or to label such behavior 'neurotic' - in fact such labeling is confusing and misleading. What is postulated is that conscious life is often rife with superficially adaptive problem solving ideation that is essentially autoplastic rather than alloplastic in nature and implicity lies in the service of underlying schemas or basic assumptions.

[[left margin]] [[good]] 

There is a further aspect of the catastrophe that must be discussed - the effect on the witnesses of the catastrophe - particularly the children. One is first struck with the unique presentational aspects of the tragedy - the capture of the passive attention of thousands of elementary school children. This in itself a unique symbol of both the wonder and the excess of modern communications. I interviewed a group of elementary teachers. I was struck by their concern and candor. The responses of the teachers were protective and nurturing. There was some talk of the necessity of sacrifice for progress but there was more skepticism and a concern with the adequacy of safety measures. One of the teachers had been in contact with Charles Foley, principal