SUMMER NEBRASKAN
PAG1
Psychotheraphy is investment in mental happiness
TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1969
By James L. Dean
NU School of Journalism
There is probably not a person in the world
that does not experience some anxiety.
The way a person deals with that anxiety
may be one of the most important things in
his life, according to Dr. James Wengert,
psychiatric consultant at the University of
Nebraska Mental Hygiene Clinic.
"Anxieties are a common problem," he said.
"The most important thing is how to handle
them. One way is to develop a neurosis."
According to Wengert, a neurosis is a way
of ignoring reality.
Wengert is also a fourth year resident at
the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute in Omaha.
His favorite area of work is with young people
of college age.
v ASKED WHAT PSYCHOTHERAPY is. he
quickly pointed out that it is not
psychoanalysis.
"The couch bit and free association techni
ques are confined mainly to the rich," he said
"I don't think there is an analyst of this type
between Chicago and Denver.
Psychoanalysis, which utilizes the couch and
free association, was devised by Sigmund Freud
in the late 19th century.
"Freud's first followers parted company with
him on the sexual aggression hang-up on which
he had based the cause of neurosis," Wengert
said. "Freud gave us the technique which in
turn gave us a point of departure. For example,
we wouldn't fly in the Wright brother's airplane
but somebody had to start somewhere."
Why do people want psychotherapy, There
Driving lessons
Driving lessons are being offered
during the summer session, according
to Richard D. Ashman of the Men's
Physical Education Department. The
lessons are to begin July 21 and will
continue through August, 21.
A $10 fee is required of all learners
and must be paid before the first
lesson is given. Interested persons
may sign up in the Men's Physical
Education Building or call 472-2480 for
more details-
are many reasons, according to Wengert, such
as anxiety, depression or alienation.
One of the main reasons young people start
taking therapy is because of an identity crisis.
This crisis evolves from confusion about the
sexual and moral codes or the choice of a voca
tion. "EARLY BLACK and white ideas become
confused. The youth must choose between in
timacy and isolation," Wengert said. "If the
youth has conflicts, with his parents, he must
resolve them.
According to Wengert, it is only natural that
a youth should have conflicts with his parents.
"We learn who we are from our parents.
At the time of adolescence these ideas must
be reconsidered," he, said.
He believes that a young person who accepts
all of his parents' ideas or none of them has
a problem.
"Perhaps one of life's worst dilemmas is
for a young person to see that his parents are
not living up to the code which they have outlin
ed," he said.
Although there are no specific guidelines for
psychotherapy, some general guidelines are
usually followed.
THE FIRST CONTACT a client makes with
the therapist is the intake interview. This , in
terview may be preceded by some form of stan--dardized
test.
"The intake interview is a systematic way
of collecting information. At the same time, it
is theraputic," Wengert said.
It helps the client gain some introspection
and creates a frame of mind. Someone is ac
cording him the respect of being seriously in
terested in him. And. importantly, there is a
non-critical listener, he continued.
"The client tells about the problem that is
bothering him. You get some idea of the past
situation in a biographical way and some basic
idea of how the person is affected by the past."
What happens after this initial interview
depends on the orientation of the individual
therapist. But, according to Wengert, some kind
of a relationship is established between the client
and the therapist.
"PERHAPS THE CLIENT will come to
relate to the therapist as if he were someone
much like his father or mother," Wengert said.
"You try to point out a pattern to the client.
It is almost certain that the client will relate
to the therapist just like he relates to others.
But rapport is necessary.
"Points cannot be brought up to some clients
without hurting them.
"You don't always need to know the causes
of behavior. The change in-behavior is probably
the most important factor."
When is therapy no longer of value or
necessary?
According to Wengert, probably the best
criteria is when the client becomes more com
fortable with himself.
Hopefully, the decision to discontinue therapy
will be a mutual one, he said. There should
be a resolution of conflicts though no one
is every totally free from conflict.
WENGERT BELIEVES therapy can be
viewed as an investment.
"It can give thd rigid person the ability
to view things abstractly and at the same time
it can give the flighty person some "rigidity,"
he said.
Wengert believes the public is under the
influence of some stereotypes about psychiatrists
. and psychiatry.
"I think it is important for the public to
understand psychiatry and to lose the basically
wrong ideas that they have about psychiatry.
The psychiatrist seen on television is more of
a stereotype than a human being with whom
people can relate.
The real psychiatrist is a non-critical listener
with an insight into human behavior. He ran
support healthy behavior and help change
unhealthy behavior, Wengert said.
"He helps the person himself to come to
his own conclusions about adapting to healthy
behavior," he added.
ASKED IF A PERSON has to be sick to
go into therapy, Wengert's terse reply was "Hell
no!"
"You don't have to be ' crazy to see a
psychiatrist," he said. "A person who finds
himself ruminating about something all the time
can greatly benefit from therapy."
One such person who believed therapy would
be helpful was a young woman who will be
referred to as Julia.
Julia, now 23, was born in a small
midwestern city of about 15,000. She was an
only child in a stable middle-class, family.
She attended a parochial grade school and
a public high school. Then she went on to college
and earned a master's degree. According to
her own estimate, she was a hard working stu
dent, who got above average grades.
When Julia was 22, she left home for a job
in a city somewhat larger than her home town.
Asked why she went into therapy, she said,
"I was anxious too much of the time.
"I COULDN'T GET work and- other
responsibilities off my mind so I cculd enjoy
myself; Some nights I couldn't go to sleep and
some mornings I woke up thinking and worrying
too much about the things I had to do that
day."
Julia entered therapy three months after
she took her job. She described herself as being
tense and anxious in her first few appointments
and said that she had difficulty talking to the
therapist.
"I talked about little problems that worried
me. It gave me momentary relief which
gradually freed me to talk about more significant
issues. The most immediate relief was from
making the decision to start therapy and being
able to tell my problems to someone, she said.
Entering into any kind of relationship will
have some effect on a person's life. A therapy
relationship will have much more effect than
many others, according to Julia.
"I did better all the way around. I saw
problems more realistically and solved them
more realistically.
.
"THERE WAS MORE relaxation and I was
able to do more things. If I was worried about
something, I knew I would be able to get to
the bottom of it.
"I began to quit taking things so seriously,
and. I learned to say no to people. In the past
I had sometimes let people take advantage of
me because L could not say no," she said.
Julia added that she was better able to get
along with her supervisors at work and with
men. She was more tolerant of her own mistakes
and was better able to understand when and
why she was angry with people, she said.
Family relations, as pointed out by Wengert,
are often a source of trouble. Julia said therapy
helped in solving and understanding troubles that
she had with her family.
Another direct source of satisfaction, ac
cording to Julia, was an improved work capacity.
She believes this is related to a lessening of
certain inhibitions which she had.
IN ADDITION TO the changed attitudes of
the person in therapy there are changed attitudes
in the people who, know the client.
Julia said that when her family learned she
was in therapy, "There was a resistance . .
. They pumped me to find out what it might
have to do with them.
"My therapy was regarded as an indication
that there was something seriously wrong with
me.
"I think it's unfortunate that most people
see psychiatric help as a last resort rather than
as a means to. live more completely.
"Not only did I mature more rapidly with
therapy than I would have without it, but I
got rid of excess emotional baggage that I would
have had to drag along with me the rest of
my life."
Julia was in therapy for about a year and
a half. The cost of the therapy was about $30
weekly or about $2,000.
THE AMOUNT CHARGED varies from place
to place. Generally it is on an interview basis
with the interview lasting about 50 minutes.
Julia has no regrets about the money she
spent. It is also tax deductible. "The money
spent was an investment in my mental health
and future happiness."
Athletic facilities
Students and faculty are en
couraged to utilize the ath
letic facilities at the Univer
sity during their stay in Lin
coln. The University tennis
courts, the Coliseum pool, the
hand-ball courts and other
recreational areas are open to
student use.
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