A stereotype is a belief, nothing more, nothing less. Let’s say, just for example, that you’re 75 years old, retired and widowed. That’s what you’d tell me if I asked you who you were. Perhaps I’d ask you what hobbies you had.
“Well, I can’t knit or crochet because of my arthritis. I don’t do much reading, because the old eyesight’s going, and I don’t get out in the garden any more because I can’t bend down. I watch television most of the time.” So you’re an old lady who watches TV.
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Humour Can Be Serious
I thought we’d turn our attention to something a little lighter today. The study of humour. Serious study, of course. You know me. I never allow any levity to creep into my articles. Levity means laughter, and laughter induces loose morals. Need I go on?
But never dismiss humour. It’s a mistake. Under dictatorships, comedians are seen as a threat and humour’s always been banned. Now why should this be? A laughing population’s a happy population, surely? Ah, but how many dictators have you seen who laugh? Unless they’re wiping out a few million people, and even then it’s pretty grim laughter.
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Recently, a Christian colleague made it clear to me that he found the use of hypnosis at the very least questionable and at the very worst “dark.” He asked me to refrain from using it in my psychotherapy work with my contract patients in the agency he founded. For lack of time, I assured him that I would honor his wishes, but quickly pointed out to him that the use of hypnosis (whether it was formal trance or Verbal First Aid, which is the use of words to facilitate healing in acute situations, such as accidents or shock) was no different than the use of a knife. In the hands of a good surgeon, it could be a life-saver. In the hands of a madman, it would be dark indeed.
Afterwards, it became clear to me that his understanding of hypnosis and mine were quite different. And any good debate must begin with a clarification of terms. Too many reasonable discussions deteriorate into pointless argument because no one fully defines himself.
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