Event: Dr Goldsmith's Lecture

On Wednesday, October 24th, I attended a small dinner at the Chaplain's house followed by a psychology lecture by Dr. Goldsmith on Erikson's works. Since I had no idea who Erikson was, and have no interest in studying psychology, I was quite confused for the most part. However, there were some points that I thought were very useful. He told a story about how one of his patients was a two year old girl, who was developmentally behind. Apparently, the child would not go to sleep in her own bed--even if she started out in her own bed, she would sneak into her parents' room in the middle of the night. It had become somewhat of a routine. The mother was distressed about this and asked Dr. Goldsmith what to do. He gave her great advice, saying that she should make the child's room into a fun theme, and have playtime in the girl's room, so the little girl would associate her room and her bed as a positive and happy place. Since it was around Halloween the previous year, the mother decorated the young girl's room in a pumpkin patch, and played with her daughter like she was told. When the girl and the mother came back for the next visit, Dr. Goldsmith was told that the little girl slept in her bed alone, every night. I particularly liked this story because I babysit for a developmentally behind four year old with the same problem. I relayed Dr. Goldsmith's advice to this woman, and I hope that it works for them.
Overall, Dr. Goldsmith's lecture focused on different ages and what they need developmentally. He also focused on three aspects of life: work, love and leisure. He really stressed our need to have an appropriate balance of these in order to be content with our lives. I thought this was a great point--since a lot of us can either get too caught up in our work, or too lazy and leisurely to do any work. I somewhat enjoyed this lecture--but I think that the psychology students appreciated it a lot more--since they actually knew the majority of what he was talking about.