Dysart’s Dream
... of interest between what he needs to do, and what he wants to do. Dysart conveys that in his dream, he is trying to justify his role as a psychologist. Dysart tells that he was “officiating at some immensely important ritual sacrifice.” (p 24) Apparently, his project is s group of 500 children of which are shared by two other helpers. Their job is to gut them literally, but figuratively of emotions and humanity to make a patient sterile, plastic, and become “completely without pain.” (p 108) Dysart accounts that this occupation has a great deal of importance, that it “depends the fate of the crops or of a military expedition.” (p 24) However, he starts to have doubts about his profession. Dysart remarks that with every patient, he is shedding a professional barrier between him and the patient. He explains that in process of surgically correcting the children, his protective mask “begins to slip,” (p 24) “and with each victim, it’s getting worse.” (p 24) In retrospect, Dysart means that with each personal contact, his barrier to protect himself is getting thinner. He feels each patient is making him unfit to continue his practice, but he cannot let...