How The Hoopoe Got His Crown

It is told of the Wise King Solomon that once he was travelling in the heat of the sun and called upon the vultures to shield him from its fierce rays. When they refused their help, he cursed them and, as a punishment, God removed the feathers from their neck and so all vultures have now a bare neck. King Solomon went on his way, and the heat grew worse than ever. Presently...

Read More

Anecdote about Mussolini, Napoleon and Machiavelli

According to a story circulating in Rome, Mussolini dies, and goes to Paradise, where he greeted warmly by Napoleon. "God will be here in a few minutes," says Napoleon. "Since you are new here, you should probably be warned that we rise when He enters". "What! I get up? Don't forget that I am the Duce". "I am Caesar", states a voice. "Yet I have the manners to rise". "Not...

Read More

The Human Comedy

This is the captivating story of an American Schoolboy who in the evening also worked as a messenger of the telegraph-office in the Second World War. Here follows  a part of the story: The messenger got off his bicycle in front of the house of Mrs Rosa Sandoval. He went to the door and knocked gently. He knew almost immediately that someone was inside the house. He could...

Read More

James Simpson, the Discoverer of Chloroform

James Simpson was a Scotman, a man of humble birth, the son of a baker. He was born in a small village in Scotland, in the early part of the last century.Though his father was only a poor man, he made up his mind that he would give his son James the best of all possible gifts, a good education.  He sent him first to the village school. James quickly proved himslef a...

Read More

The Rainbow Fairies

Two little clouds one summer's day Went flying through the sky They went so fast they bumped their heads And both began to cry Old Father Sun looked out and said: "Oh, never mind, my dears, I'll send my little fairy folk To dry your falling tears" One fairy came in violet, And one in indigo In blue, green, yellow, orange, red, They made a pretty row They wiped the...

Read More

Sullivan: Empathy and the Significant Other

The "significant other" is a term which Sullivan (1947) uses to denote the most influential person in the child's world, usualy the mother. We have already described in the section on ego formation how the infant first receives an impression of the "mothering one" which gradually differentiates into a `Good Mother" and a "Bad Mother." Sullivan treats another concept in the area of infantile relationships—the concept of empathy. Empathy refers to...

Read More

Freud’s View On The Death Instinct

     Freud originally divided the instincts into two categories: (1) the self-preservation or ego instincts; and (2) the sexual instincts. The historical features in the development of his thinking are clearly outlined in Thompson not concern us here. The end result was a division into the life instinct, Eros, and the death instinct, Thanatos. The life instinct included libido and part of the ego instincts; the death instinct was...

Read More