Tema 1

- Who are you? -

1. Reading - Comprehension

a) “What the visitor would discover is that the human mind is sick with a disease called fear.
Just like the description of the infected skin, the emotional body is full of wounds, and these
wounds are infected with emotional poison. The manifestation of the disease of fear is anger, hate,
sadness, envy, and hypocrisy; the result of the disease is all the emotions that make humans suffer.
All humans are mentally sick with the same disease. We can even say that this world is a
mental hospital. But this mental disease has been in this world for thousands of years, and the
medical books, the psychiatric books, and the psychology books describe the disease as normal.
They consider it normal, but I can tell you it is not normal. When the fear becomes too great, the
reasoning mind starts to fail and can no longer take all those wounds with all the poison. In the
psychology books we call this a mental illness. We call it schizophrenia, paranoia, psychosis, but
these diseases are created when the reasoning mind is so frightened and the wounds so painful, that
it becomes better to break contact with the outside world.
Humans live in continuous fear of being hurt, and this creates a big drama wherever we go.
The way humans relate to each other is so emotionally painful that for no apparent reason we get
angry, jealous, envious, sad. To even say "I love you" can be frightening. But even if it's painful and
fearful to have an emotional interaction, still we keep going, we enter into a relationship, we get
married, and we have children.”

b ) „Freud has been influential in two related but distinct ways. He simultaneously developed a
theory of how the human mind is organized and operates internally, and how human behavior both
conditions and results from this particular theoretical understanding. This led him to favor certain
clinical techniques for attempting to help cure psychopathology. He theorized that personality is
developed by the person's childhood experiences. Since neurology and psychiatry were not
recognized as distinct medical fields at the time of Freud's training, the medical degree he obtained
after studying for six years at the University of Vienna board certified him in both fields, although
he is far more well-known for his work in the latter.

As far as neurology went, Freud was an early researcher on the topic of neurophysiology,
specificallycerebral palsy, which was then known as "cerebral paralysis." He published several
medical papers on the topic, and showed that the disease existed far before other researchers in his
day began to notice and study it. He also suggested that William Little, the man who first
identified cerebral palsy, was wrong about lack of oxygen during the birth process being a cause.

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Instead, he suggested that complications in birth were only a symptom of the problem. It was not
until the 1980s that Freud's speculations were confirmed by more modern research. Freud hoped
that his research would provide a solid scientific basis for his therapeutic technique. The goal of
Freudian therapy, orpsychoanalysis, was to bring to consciousness repressed thoughts and feelings
in order to free the patient from the suffering caused by the repetitive return of distorted forms of
these thoughts and feelings. According to some of his successors, including his daughter Anna
Freud, the goal of therapy is to allow the patient to develop a stronger ego; according to others,
notably Jacques Lacan, the goal of therapy is to lead the analysand to a full acknowledgment of his
or her inability to satisfy the most basic desires.

Classically, the bringing of unconscious thoughts and feelings to consciousness is brought about
by encouraging the patient to talk in free association and to talk about dreams. Another important
element of psychoanalysis is a relative lack of direct involvement on the part of the analyst, which
is meant to encourage the patient to project thoughts and feelings onto the analyst. Through this
process, transference, the patient can reenact and resolve repressed conflicts, especially childhood
conflicts with (or about) parents.”

New words and expressions

Conscious = aware = wide-awake= conștient ;
Consciousness = conștiință ;
Subconsciuos = The part of the mind below the level of conscious perception. Often used
with the.
Fully conscious = perfect conștient ; cu mintea trează ;
Reasoning mind = minte rațională ;
Relate to = a face legătura cu ; a se referi la ;
To be relateed to = a se înrudi cu ;

Emotion = passion, sensation,excitement = a psycological state that arises spontaneously rather

than trough conscious effort;
- joy = joyfulness = joyousness = bucurie ;
- love , hate, veneration ;
- awe = teamă de ; ( the professor awed the students )
- anxiety = anxietate ;
- fear = frică ;
- anger = choler = furie ;
- grievance = revendicare ;

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2. Speaking - helping questions
1. Who are you ?
2. Do you think you re just what you see ?
3. What’s your greatest fear ? Do you think fear is an emotion?
4. What kind of emotions do you experience most ?
5. Which activity from your daily life you enjoy the most ?
6. Everyone has a favourite colour. Colors say a lot of things about us. What’s yours ?
7. What your most hidden dream ?
8. If an alien came to you, what would you tell him ?
9. What would you do with one blue match ?
10. Describe your perfect room as you see it now : colours, furniture, windows, bed,
blankets, carpet.
11. What do you think about loneliness ?
12. Do you see yourself married with children, carrier woman or combined ?
13. Eleanor Roosevelt once said : “ The world belongs to those who believe in the power of
their dreams “ . Whats your opinion on this quote ?
14. Are you satisfied with who you are now ?

3. Homework
Watch Zeitgeist movie without translation. Write an essay ( 1 page ) describing your
opinion on the subject. Use the following words and expressions :

- spirit
- astronomy
- conspiracy
- conspirator
- religion
- plot – plotter
- the end of the world
- prophecy
- pineal gland