, L ober 11. 1963 The N, C, Essay ' -. «r- ■ By Terrence S. > , Europe had its witch hunts, Russia its Purges and America has had since 1938 the House Conunittee on Un="AiDerican Activities = These may seem strained comparisons but not too many years ago the similitu* des were more than valid. For thirty years this committee has brought fear and degradation to liberals throughout this country by its con tinuous harassment of progressive organizations. HUAG's latest attack cams last week when it conducted hearings to investigate the "Commu nist and pro-Communist subversive elements" at work during the August Battle of Chicago (also known as the Democratic National Convention), The witnesses this time were Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, and other Yippies. Both sides were mere ghosts of their former selves. Gone were the glorious days of the 1930's and 1950's when just the slightest unpro ved comment by HUAC could cause a professor or scientist to lose his job; a lawer to be debarred, or an actor to be blacklisted. Under pressure from politicans not to cause a stir this close to the elec tion, HUAC, under subcommittee chair man Ichord (Do, Mo.), made only the minimum number of arrests and relea sed only the minimum number of illogical and asinine statements to make it a real HUAC hearing. In addition the opposition had lost something of its former self. Accompanied by the same sterotyped young liberal lawyers that had defen ded the "subversive elements" of the 1950's these new witnesses were too outside of the old reform liherr. 1 to be effective with their courtroom antics.. The old liberals were men sacrificing careers, jobSp and pres tige to defy the reactionary commit tee, The Yippies, by having already thrown themselves outside of the established coraaunity fnot to be confused with "establishment")» were sacrificing less by their courtroom appearances then did the rebels of the past. This is not to downgrade the Yippie performance. Hoffman's continual request to go to the bath room and Rubin's demand for "pqual harassment;" gave the committee the type of response it deserves. It seems strange now to recaJ i that HUAC was the brain child of liberal Sam Dickstein who hoped it would be used against American Nazis. Instead HUAC feel into the hands of McCarthy and the right wing of the House which has used (con't pg. 5, col. 3) MUSC THE? FOR THE GERiATRr mm By Harvey Jacobson "All forms of psychotherapy at tempt to promote beneficial changes in a patient's attitudes and symp toms through the influence of the therapist with whom he has a close relationship," Some of the many forms of psy= chotherapies in existence today in mental hospitals are: 1. Music Therapy 2. Art Therapy 3. Occupational Therapy 4o Recreational Therapy 5. Arts and Crafts 6. Bibliotherapy and 7. Drug Therapy to mention only a few. This paper is concerned with the use of music as a Therapy for the senile psycho» tic patient who may be defined ass "one who is suffering from a severe mental disorder of the aged, mani fested by loss of memory, judgement, moral and esthetic values, and is disturbed emotionally." WHY, MUSIC? The use of music is today con sidered one of the more pleasant and applicable pursuits for the senile patient. As part of recreational and music therapy activities, it can bring much comfort from I) physical pain, 2) it can help to erase feel ings of fear from being alone, 3) it can help to release old memories and deeply rooted feelings, both pleas ant and unpleasant, 4) it can "Hu manize" by moving the emotions and by even helping to change old pat terns of behavior. With the geriatric patient, music can become both an active and passive agent in therapy activities. It can be an integral element in a well-planned and "thought-out" lis tening program or it can be used as an intrusive agent, invading the bizzare, disordered, disoriented, thoughts of the senile patient. This intrusive quality of mu sic, can best be found in 1) exotic rhythms, 2) music of a percussive nature, 3) march music, 4) and music which stresses instruments of the brass family. This kind of music can more easily be heard and felt by the senile patient suffering from a reduction in his ability to hear. Singing old and familiar songs will often promote active and posi tive responses from geriatric pa tients. Among some of the favorite songs of the aged patient are: 1, Well-known hymns, 2, Folk tunes, 3, and songs of a patriotic nature. RIAL The geriatric patient is often bed-ridden or partially immobilized and therefore not able to actively participate in such activities as dancing, and active games= In such cases, if the patient is able to use their hands, wrists, or arms, we may take chis as a clue as a means of helping the patient achieve some kind of satisfaction, Rhydriic, in struments can help to keep these limbs "alive" through exercises or "keeping time to music." With the use of rhythm instruments, it is preferable to use that music which has strongly marked beats, "live" music being prefered. Patients confined to wheel= chairs can often become actively in volved in activities, when such ac tivities are geared to their physi cal limitationso Square dancing has often been known to be adaptable for this type of patient, CONCLUDING REMARKS More important in any of the activities mentioned, are the emo tional and physiological responses of the patients to the activity be ing presented. In conclusion then, we may say that therapy and recre ational activities involving the use of music, can play an integral part in the rehabilitation program for the geriatric patient, if the acti vities are geared and modified to the physical and psychological llmi- tatfons of the aging patient. fNC ESSAY STAFF Editor Tony Senter Co-editor & Review , Lynn Bernhardt Feature Writers , « . . .David Wood Mark Walsh Dance Editor , , . o Sandra Williams Music Editor » , . . , Celia Sparger Political & Editorial, D. Williamson Typist Harold Ingram Photography Cathy Casper Adlvsor,. . . Anthony Fragola L (fi STljDEI-rrS RIOTS TAKE TOLL (from p,l) Identified as Socrates Amado Campos Lenius, 24, he is a fifth year economies student at thf I'Jarional Polytechnic Institute and a recent visitor to Cuba, Campos Lemus allegedly reeled off a list of names of orominent persons who he said had attempted to take advantage of the student unrest for political gain. The government newspaper, El Naciona1, said Sunday that Campos Lemus revealed the students goal was "the abolition of existing institu tions in order to pave the way for arriving at a workers' and peasants' Communist state."

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view