1、Lesson 27 Interviewer: I understand youre interested in holistic medicine. Can you explain what holistic medicine is? Vivienne: OK. Holistic medicine, um, takes into consideration the whole of the person. Now what this means in, in most holistic systems is regarding the person as a physical entity,
2、a mental or emotional person, and also even their spiritual side of them. Um, it also includes looking at the body as a whole rather than looking at individual parts of the body, and as a way of explaining this, we could look at conventional medicine as producing people who are like a cardiologist,
3、who looks at a heart, um, a brain specialist, a person who deals with bones, er, etc. So what weve tended to do in conventional medicine is break things down to a point where were actually only looking at one part of the person and were not actually relating terribly well that part to the rest of th
4、e body, whereas holistic medicine insists that if there is a problem, er, with your right foot, that is going to somehow, um, affect your entire body. Interiewer: Um, your speciality is acupuncture. Er, is that a part of holistic medicine? Vivienne: Acupuncture is very much a holistic system. Um, tr
5、aditionally the Chinese regarded the person very much as a whole entity and acupuncture itself works on an energy system basically, and in a very simplified way, its saying that, er, you have an energy system within your body and when that energy becomes blocked or tainted in some way, then you will
6、 manifest certain symptoms and the things that we look at in conventional medicine as things like arthritis or rheumatism are, to the Chinese, merely an imbalance of the energy. So, in this way, they may say to you, well, yes, you have rheumatoid arthritis but were going to actually look at your ene
7、rgy balance and rebalance you, and, as a result, your symptoms should disappear. Interviewer: Um, is acupuncture essentially a form of preventative medicine? Vivienne: Traditionally, it was, very much. Um, in fact, traditionally, in China, people only used to pay the doctor while they were well and
8、they used to go to their doctor fairly regularly on, you know, maybe four or five times a year, and they would only pay the doctor when they were kept well. And if they got sick, they didnt pay the doctor. And the doctor had various methods of which acupuncture was one, diet was another, exercise wa
9、s another, er, of ensuring that the person lived a right life style and their emphasis was on if youre living a right life style, if youre living in tune with the laws of the universe, going to sleep when its dark, waking up when its light, working, resting, doing all these things properly, then you
10、 wont get sick. Unfortunately, our way of looking at life in the West is very different in that we tend to struggle on in spite of our headache and not take terribly much notice of our body when things are not quite right and we tend to struggle on until we fall over and we get carted off to hospita
11、l in an ambulance. And so, acupuncture in the West, unfortunately, in a way, has come to be not the preventative medicine that it could be because were not taking responsibility enough for ourselves in going along and making sure that we stay well. Janice: So you really believe that clothes carry a
12、kind of message for other people and that what we put on is in some way a reflection of what we feel? Pauline: Oh yes, very much so. People are beginning now to take seriously the idea of a kind of psychology of clothing, to believe that there is not just individual taste in our clothes but also a t
13、hinking behind what we wear which is trying to express something we may not even be aware of ourselves. Janice: But surely this has always been the case. We all dress up when we want to impress someone, such as for a job interview with a prospective employer; we tend to make an effort and put on som
14、ething smart. Pauline: True, but thats a conscious act. What Im talking about is more of a subconscious thing. Take for example the student who is away from home at college or university: if he tends to wrap himself up more than the others, this is because he is probably feeling homesick. Similarly,
15、 a general feeling of insecurity can sometimes take the form of over-dressing in warmer clothes than are necessary. Janice: Can you give any other examples of this kind? Pauline: Yes. I think people who are sociable and outgoing tend to dress in an extrovert way, preferring brighter or more dazzling
16、 coloursyellows, bright reds, and so on. In the same way, what might be seen as a parallel with the animal kingdom, aggressive clothes might indicate an aggressive personality or attitude to life. Think about the threat displays used by animals when they want to warn off opponents. Janice: Do you th
17、ink the careor lack of itover the way we actually wear our clothes has anything to tell us? Pauline: Yes, indeed. The length, for example, of a mans trousers speaks volumes about his awareness of his own image. Or, if his trousers are at half-mast, all sort of hanging down, this probably means hes a
18、bsorbed by other things. Janice: Really. Pauline: Or, to give you other examples, often minority groups, who have perhaps failed to persuade with words, tend to express themselves by wearing unconventional, or what some might consider outrageous clothing, as a way of showing their thoughts and feeli
19、ngs are different from the rest, and so they find an outlet in this way. Janice: That surely spills over into other things as well. Pauline: Oh yes, indeed. Haircuts, jewellery, kinds of fabric usedthese things can all be a form of rebellion. But to get back to clothes, I would like to add that a wh
20、ole lot about our personality is conveyed in our clothes and the way we lookaggressiveness, rebelliousness, happiness, sadness, and so on. These can all be interpreted. Think of the ageing pop star who may be pushing middle age, hell keep on dressing up like a rebel to try to prove hes with it still
21、, and in touch with his young fans and current trends. Janice: Do you think that at work clothes and general appearance have any significance? Pauline: Definitely. Weve already spoken about job interviews a bit, and its interesting to note that in a recent survey it was suggested that employers pref
22、er young executives to stick to grey, black and dark blue suits if they are men, and classical outfits and dresses in sober colours if they are women, perhaps because they feel this is a reflection of a more responsible and sober attitude to work and will also project this image to customers. Janice
23、: Do you subscribe to this opinion? Pauline: I personally think that too much conservatism defeats the object of the clothes industry. They want to create new fashions and colour to sell clothes, so I cant really say that I go along wholeheartedly with it. There should be room for manoeuvre, leaving
24、 people scope to express their individuality in what they are wearing. Weve all seen them on TV commercials, looking out at us from the covers of glossy magazines or showing off the latest creations from Paris, and it must have seemed to us that they have lives which are all glamour. Jeffrey Ingrams
25、 has been delving into the world of the fashion model and has come up with some interesting facts. Denise: The average model can earn roughly the same as a top secretary on the basis, that is, that shes a freelance with an agent wholl send her out for auditions and interviews and get work for her. J
26、effrey: Denise Harper is a model agent. The Central Model Agency, in which shes a partner, is very closely associated with the Metropolitan Academy of Modelling, where dozens of aspiring models have come over the years to pay their money to take a basic course in the techniques of being a model. Jus
27、t over five years ago, one such aspiring model was eighteen-year-old Margaret Connor, fresh from school. Margaret: Your mother has told you that youre a pretty girl and you think that youre Gods gift. Youre not, of course, but the Academy give you the works, how to do make-up, how to walk, how to do
28、 your hair, dress sense, the lot. Jeffrey: Now before we go any further I really ought to give you some idea of what Margaret looks like. Shes about 5 feet 8 inches tall, with shoulder-length auburn hair, hazel eyes and a ready smile. Like Margaret, every model has her index card which potential cli
29、ents can keep in their files to refer to. When not working, Margaret is a rather prettier-than-average girl-next-door, but her photograph alone seemed to show that she can be as versatile and as fashionable as anyone might want. But why did Denise Harper pick her out from the other similar applicant
30、s for the modelling course at the Academy? Denise: I always look for personality, poise, good height and, very important, initiative, all of which Margaret has. You try to find above all a girl who you think will work and is not only in it for the money. Jeffrey: Naturally, when theyve finished the
31、course it doesnt always mean automatically that they are set for stardom. Margaret occasionally gives classes at the Academy and she told me why some girls just pack in the job. Margaret: Sometimes the work is too hard, sometimes its too scarce and sometimes you have to push yourself too much. Youve
32、 got to be a saleswoman to be a model, just sitting back and thinking youre going to be cosseted is no good, youve got to go out there and get work. But once youve got it, OK, fine. Jeffrey: When work does come along, it could be pretty well anything. Margaret: Really its a different job every timei
33、t might be TV advertisements, live advertising promotions, a photo session, anything. Jeffrey: I asked Margaret to give me some idea of a typical day in her life. Margaret: This is the fun thing about it, really. Youve got no idea what youll be doing tomorrow, nothings planned ahead. Theres such a v
34、ariety of ways of spending the day. Theres a sort of wake-up at 8 oclock with the phone ringing day, and next minute youre off abroad somewhere, which is everybodys idea of modelling. Then, other days you have to go round and sell yourself because youve got nothing on at allseeing photographers, mag
35、azines, newspapers, generally getting your face around. On a busy day youve got to dash from job to job, its all very hectic, but basically youve always got to have everything literally by the phone, be ready to leave at a moments notice. But theres variety in it. Making TV commercials has in fact n
36、ow overtaken straightforward fashion as our favourite occupation. Its more fun than photographic work, where one split second decides whether you look nice or not. In a TV commercial theres some acting involved, and you have to keep it up for a while, which is more of a challenge. Jeffrey: When Marg
37、aret said she kept everything by the phone, I wondered what she meant. Margaret: Definitely your diary, with a pen, waiting for that interview. Then every model has one arm longer than the other (laughs) because of all the things she has to cart around in her bagspare pairs of shoes, make-up, spare
38、tights, and a bookit can get boring waiting around sometimes. I read such a lot of novels! Umm, everything but the kitchen sinkit all has to be packed in. Jeffrey: Whatever her motivation, its quite clear that Margaret enormously enjoys being a model. Margaret: Yes, I love it! Its fantastic! I just
39、couldnt think of doing anything else. Its always been the glamour that attracted me. To begin with, its real hard work to get established, but the variety and excitement of not knowing from one day to the next whats going to happen has never ceased to give me a thrill. Solving Problems Today I am go
40、ing to talk about some thoughts that psychologists have had on how people go about solving problems. The first point I want to make is that there is no one way of solving all problems. If you think about it you will realize the obvious fact that there are many different kinds of problems which have
41、to be solved in different ways. Let us take two very different examples. A student is sitting in his study, trying to solve a problem in Mathematics. After an hour, still unsuccessful, he gives up and goes to bed. The following morning he wakes up and wanders into the study. Suddenly, the solution c
42、omes to him. Now for a very different kind of problem. In the Shakespeare play Hamlet, young Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, discovers that his father has been murdered by his uncle. The evidence is based on the appearance of his fathers ghost, urging him to revenge his death by killing his uncle. Should
43、 he accept the ghosts evidence, and kill his uncle? This is obviously a very different kind of problem. Such moral or emotional problems might have no real solution, or at any rate no solution that everyone might agree on. There are many other different types of problems apart from these two. In thi
44、s talk, I would like to talk about the first kind of problem: the kind that the student of Mathematics was involved with. The solution to that kind of problem is sometimes called an A-ha solution, because the solution comes suddenly, out of nowhere as it were, and in English people sometimes say A-h
45、a when a good idea comes to them like that. Another, less amusing, name for it is insight. For a long time the student seems to get no where, and then there is a sudden flash of insight and the solution appears. A classic example of insight is the case of the French mathematician, Poincare. Ill spel
46、l it. P-O-I-N-C-A-R-E, POINCARE. For fifteen days Poincare struggled with a mathematical problem and had no success. Then one evening he took black coffee before going to bed (which was not his usual custom). As he lay in bed, he couldnt sleep, and all sorts of ideas came to him. By morning he had s
47、olved that problem which had baffled him for over a fortnight. What do psychologists have to say about this process of problem solving? A very good and helpful description of the solving process has been made by POLYA, a teacher of Mathematics. Ill spell his name, too. P-O-L-Y-A, POLYA. Remember tha
48、t Polya is thinking of insight problems, and in particular, mathematics problems, but his ideas should apply in all sorts of areas. Polyas description has four stages. They are: Stage one: Understanding the problem: At this stage, the student gathers all the information he needs and asks himself two
49、 questions: The first question is: What is the unknown? What is my goal? In other words, what do I want to find out? The second question is: What are the data and conditions? What is given? In other words: what do I already know? Stage two: Devising a plan: here the student makes use of his past exp
50、erience to decide on the method of solution. At this stage he asks himself three questions: a) Do I know a problem similar to this one? b) Can I restate the goal in a different way that will make it easier for me to use my past experience? Polya calls restating the goal working backwards. c) Can I r
51、estate what is given in a way that relates to my past experience? Polya calls restating what is given as working forward. The student stays at stage two until he has the flash of insight. If necessary he can put the problem to one side for a while and then come back to it. Eventually he will see how
52、 the problem can be done. Stage three: Carrying out the plan: the student carries out the plan of solution, checking each step. Stage four: Looking back: the student checks his answer in some way, perhaps by using another method, or whatever. Having done that, he makes it part of his experience by a
53、sking himself: Can I use this result or method for other problems? I will repeat again that not all problems are like the mathematics problems that Polya is thinking about. Not every problem is solvable, and some may even have no satisfactory solution. Nevertheless, it is probably a good idea to do what Polya has done. That is, when you are successful in solving a problem, analyse how you have done it, and remember your method for the next time.
