I have been thinking for some time of redoing my books about my character Morrie Schwartz. The two published books, "Shrink" and "Finding Jackson" had typos (I am a trerrible proff reader) and some flaws in the stories. I have written a fourth story but did not publish it after becoming disenchanted with PublishAmerica. I own the copyrites so I am able to republish. I finally decided to act and did a compilation of the four stories under one cover. "Nightmare" is the new name for the volume and it contains the four stories.
The first story, "Shrink" is the original story without the autobiographical part in the beginning. (Morrie is my alter ego.) "Soul Search" was the second part of the original volume. Morrie goes on a time travel quest for meaning, encountering seminal leaders in the history of philosophy and psychology. "Finding Jackson" was published as a sequel. Morrie treats a man with intractible pain in his arm but no identifiable organic etiology. The man identifies himself as a reincarnated Stonewall Jackson. The last story, and final adventure for Morrie, is a case of identity theft. Morrie visits his future grave site and finds it apparently occupied, with his name and date of death on the gravestone.
"Nightmare" will be self-published by Create Space (Amazon)and should be available on the Amazon website in November. I will be announcing it on Facebook and Linked In.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Social networking
After having my email was hacked into a couple of years ago I stopped doing Facebook. I have now gone active again with both Facebook and Linked In and in one day accu,mulated a plethora of Friends. All of this is in anticipation that fairly soon I will stop working and need, once again, to reinvent myself. Writing will be an important activity. I am trying to publish a compilation of my four Shrink stories. Three of them (Shrink, Soul Search, and Finding Jackson) have been published but I own the copyrite and can re-publish them elsewhere. A fourth story, unpublished,titled Nobody, is a fictitious account of Morrie, now retired, who finds his gravesite apparently occupied with a grave stone indicating his recent death. I will announce when I have been successful in publishing this epic. In the meantime I continue consulting at Marple Newtown School district, where I counsel with about thirty adolescents, mostly girls who challenge me constantly. I have written some of their stories but cannot publish because of privacy issues. Perhaps in a few years, when these students and grown and no one remembers or can identify them, I'll put these accounts in print. I waited about ten years before I published poems about children in placement at Elwyn, in a short book titled "Oliver Twists in America" (Publish America). Hopefully, my renewed attempt at social networking will stimulate some interest in half a dozen published but unread efforts. Interested readers can also checkout my website: www.rosenshrinksite.com (I am also promoting my private practice in Chester Springs.)
Thursday, October 13, 2011
No one uses Rorschach anymore
With all the rainy weather keeping me from working outside one might have expected I'd pay greater attention to this blogsite. No excuses. I just haven't felt the urge to share. I am back at work three days a week counseling high school kids--most girls (guys just don't want to talk about their feelings) who challenge me constantly, balking at my attempots to structure them into small groups dealing with self-esteem, family issues (of which there is no shortage),coping with stress and depression, and anger management. I am swamped with referrals of girls wanting to talk but sometimes overwhelmned by too much estrogen being dumped on me. However, I still enjoy working with these kids.
Speaking of rainy weather, I can appreciate the close interface between rain and depression. Both Lena Horne and Billy Holiday made hit recordings of the song Stormy Weather.
"Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky,
Stormy waether since my man and I ain't together,
Keeps raining all the time."
When I was a psychology intern at the V.A. Hospital at Perry Point, Maryland I was supervised by a psychoanalyst from Baltimore. I was doing therapy with a nurse with a diagnosis of Manic Depression (now Bi-polar Disorder). While she was in her manic phase she provided me with a rich source of juicy material for my mentor to interpret. I had to present the case weekly to a large group of psychologists and psychiatrists. One day she stopped talking as she passed in the depressive phase of her desorder. I became concerned that I would have nothing to present at our next supervision meeting.
"She stopped talking, doctor."
"She said nothing at all?"
"Only one sentence the entire hour. She said, It's raining out."
He quoted for me a poem I had learned in high school French class.
"Il pleur dans mon coeur comme il pleur sur la vie."
Translation: It rains in my heart like it rains on the city."
"Your patient is depressed," he interpreted, somewhat pompously.
(Brilliant.)
"I know she is depressed, doctor, and it was raining out at the time. What
do I do now?"
He chose someone else to present for the following week.
I did get a great deal of practice and supervision in administering Rorschach tests at Perry Point and later taught Rorschach interpretation to pschology graduate students at Brym Mawr College. Yet Rorschach is pretty much passe' today with more emphasis placed on more objective assessment instruments.
The Director of Pupil Services at school, who also had some training in projective techniques, asked me yestereday to use the Rorschach in a risk assessment with a new student who had a violent rage reaction towards his mother. Is this Intermittent Explosive Disorder?" Does he represent a continued danger at school? Rorschach testing might provcide some clues as to the intensity of his anger and potential for aggression at school. In Rorschach interpretation the use of color in forming percepts from the relatively ambiguous inkblots is equated with emotional lability. The perception of movement in the inkblots and the frequency of "good form" responses is considered a measure of emotional control. I'll do the testing next week and we'll see.
Sp
Speaking of rainy weather, I can appreciate the close interface between rain and depression. Both Lena Horne and Billy Holiday made hit recordings of the song Stormy Weather.
"Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky,
Stormy waether since my man and I ain't together,
Keeps raining all the time."
When I was a psychology intern at the V.A. Hospital at Perry Point, Maryland I was supervised by a psychoanalyst from Baltimore. I was doing therapy with a nurse with a diagnosis of Manic Depression (now Bi-polar Disorder). While she was in her manic phase she provided me with a rich source of juicy material for my mentor to interpret. I had to present the case weekly to a large group of psychologists and psychiatrists. One day she stopped talking as she passed in the depressive phase of her desorder. I became concerned that I would have nothing to present at our next supervision meeting.
"She stopped talking, doctor."
"She said nothing at all?"
"Only one sentence the entire hour. She said, It's raining out."
He quoted for me a poem I had learned in high school French class.
"Il pleur dans mon coeur comme il pleur sur la vie."
Translation: It rains in my heart like it rains on the city."
"Your patient is depressed," he interpreted, somewhat pompously.
(Brilliant.)
"I know she is depressed, doctor, and it was raining out at the time. What
do I do now?"
He chose someone else to present for the following week.
I did get a great deal of practice and supervision in administering Rorschach tests at Perry Point and later taught Rorschach interpretation to pschology graduate students at Brym Mawr College. Yet Rorschach is pretty much passe' today with more emphasis placed on more objective assessment instruments.
The Director of Pupil Services at school, who also had some training in projective techniques, asked me yestereday to use the Rorschach in a risk assessment with a new student who had a violent rage reaction towards his mother. Is this Intermittent Explosive Disorder?" Does he represent a continued danger at school? Rorschach testing might provcide some clues as to the intensity of his anger and potential for aggression at school. In Rorschach interpretation the use of color in forming percepts from the relatively ambiguous inkblots is equated with emotional lability. The perception of movement in the inkblots and the frequency of "good form" responses is considered a measure of emotional control. I'll do the testing next week and we'll see.
Sp
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