Psychology

[Patrick D'arcy]

“Some people are afraid of what they might find if they try to analyze themselves too much, but you have to crawl into your wounds to discover where your fears are. Once the bleeding starts, the cleansing can begin.”

Tori Amos

Patrick D'Arcy walked into his classroom, a stack of papers in the crook of his arm and the top half of Snoop could be seen above his shirt pocket as the grey rat looked around.

The man placed the papers on his large desk, leaving his hand down long enough for snoop to race down it, onto the desk and into the pencil tin that was the centre point of the desk. The psychology teacher smiled lightly as he rubbed his little friend under her chin before he turned back to the papers he placed down. He then began sorting them out into sets and then walked around the classroom and put one set of papers on each table. There weren't that many tables, as he didn't have a large class, and because of this he only had the number of tables he needed.

The papers were on the history and ideas of and behind dream analysis, he wanted to continue on from the last class and hoped that the students would remember to bring their journals, so they could begin to analyse their own dreams. This he would ask them to do an a separate sheet of paper, not in the journals, as he was interested to see how their analysis worked out without reading about their dreams - as that would literally be like reading someone's diary.

He walked around to the back of his desk before he sat down and picked up a mystery novel that he had been working his way through. He decided that there was no harm in reading while he waited for his first students to arrive from the class they were currently departing from.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara slid of the chair in her calculus class, still not keen on the fact that the chair had wheels as it didn't make her feel too safe and anyone could walk past and move her. She packed up her things and put them in the satchel before bowing her head toward the teacher at the front of the room and then exiting the classroom.

Slipping through the halls like a ghost, well she may as well be invisible as her name wasn't called out like so many others as friends met up in the hallway between classes. Leaving the math wing and walking through to the sociology wing, she walked to the classroom where the psychology class was held.

Pausing at the closed door, she went through her normal ritual of closing her eyes and drawing in a breath through her nose and releasing it through her mouth, it took no more than a few seconds, but it seemed to do a lot for her, as she felt an inner calm when she opened her eyes again. Lifting her hand, she gave a gentle tap on the door before she turned the knob and walked through the threshold. She knew that the teacher would be expecting students, but since the door was close, her training made her knock.

She loved the way the room was decorated with a handful of posters and the walls were a soft blue. Bowing her head to Mr D'Arcy, she walked across the room to her normal table, glancing at the papers on it before she sat down and began yet another of her rituals and set up her desk just so. Zipped-folder in the centre of the desk with her royal blue dream journal on top of it, pencil case in the top right-hand corner of the desk, glasses case on the left and the pens she needed; blue, red and black along with a writing pencil and eraser at the top centre. Her satchel she pushed neatly under her chair so that it was out of the way and wouldn't be knocked by her feet.

She sat back in the chair as she picked up the pile of paper and pushing the journal to the top of the folder, she placed the papers on top of both and began to read through the pages.

[Becca Walsh]

Becca walked into her psychology classroom, happy to see that there was only one other girl there so far. She knew that she'd missed the first class, so she wanted to have a bit of time to catch up on things. She'd been notified that she'd need a notebook for this class, so she'd brought a leather bound one that had struck her fancy in a store. She immediately walked up to the teacher's desk, taking notice of the rat on it, but keeping her focus, "Hello, I am Becca Walsh. I've just arrived at Blue Ridge Academy, so I was unable to attend the previous class, but I've brought a journal. Is there anything else I can do to make up for what I have missed? She held out the journal before putting it back into her book bag. She didn't really know what to expect, but she figured that this class might be good for her. She'd been very confused with everything since her sister's death, and was hoping that this class might be able to help her clear things up.

Looking around she noticed that the other student was the girl with the hanoverian mare from her jumping class, and she smiled at her brightly. Becca had chosen to wear a scarlet sweater and brown velvet pants with oxford shoes. She had a red embroidered headband pulling back her burnt red hair. While waiting for her answer, Becca tugged absentmindedly at a loose strand of hair.

[lizziebrookes]

Izzie rushed down the halls of Blue Ridge, desperately trying to avoid being late to her first class at the Academy. She had forgotten her journal and had ran all the way bad to her room to grab it. When she finally reached her destination, the room her Psychology class was to be held in, she was out of breath. She headed into the room, her breathing slightly labored, and took a moment at the door to survey her surroundings.

The room was calming to look at, and Izzy visibly relaxed as she realized she was among the first students to arrive. She smiled at the teacher and muttered a quick apology for her obvious lack of breath, holding up her journal as if that was explanation enough.

There was a girl at the teacher's desk, and a slightly timid looking girl already in her seat. She gave the girl who was seated a friendly look and bounced over to take the seat next to her, her golden hair swaying behind her. Izzy was new to Blue Ridge, although she was a junior, and didn't know anybody as of yet. And in her opinion, it's never too early to start making friends.

As she settled into her chair, she pulled her sweater tighter around her shoulders with one hand and set her journal neatly onto her desk with the other. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a thin, empty binder and securely fastened the papers she found on her desk. While digging for a writing utensil, she read some of the handout, which involved dream analysis.

She had taken a psychology class at her old school in Montana, and had found it extraordinarily interesting, so she was really looking forward to Blue Ridge's psychology class in particular. She glanced happily at the people in the room one more time before she started doodling on the corner of her handout, waiting for class to begin.

[Patrick D'arcy]

"Don't become a mere recorder of facts, but try to penetrate the mystery of their origin."

Ivan Pavlov
(1849-1936)

Patrick looked up as the first of his students arrived and he bowed his head in response to the girl's greeting. The girl's accomplishments weren't too much of a secret around the faculty, so he often wondered why a psephology major(ette) was in his class, but he wasn't going to question her outright as that would just be rude. He couldn't help but watch as she set her desk up, the girl was a psychology study in herself, and the man would love to be able to get into her head but again, that would just be rude!

His attention was pulled as another student entered the classroom and he gave her a warm smile as she approached his desk, noting when her attention was drawn to the rat before she introduced herself. "Welcome to the class, Becca." He greeted softly, he made a habit of never raising his voice in the classroom as he had found that it actually made the students listen. "Last time we were talking about dreams. You will need two notebooks for this class, one to write notes in, and another for a dream journal." He gave a soft smile. "I will never as to read your dream journal, nor will I ask you to share it with others. When you learn to analyse your dreams though, that part I will get to read." Dreams were private and he wasn't here to invade into their privacy. "If you go an find a seat, we'll get started soon."

He reached out a finger and scratched snoop under her chin. Another student entered the room and took the table beside Cara and he gave a half smile, silently wishing the girl luck to get anything out of the small silent student.

After another few minutes, the tardy bell sounded and Patrick finally rode to his feet and walked around to perch on the corner of his desk. "As you will see, I have given you each some paper on dream analysis. You will eventually learn to analyse your own dreams, and you will be writing out the analysis in your class book. These I will be asking to look at, so only add as much of your actual dream into them as you want me to know. I will not hold it against you if you just want to write bullet points." His eyes swept over the three young ladies in the room. "Sorry, Cara, but I'm going to go over the last lesson again. Let's look deeper into what dreams are: Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation, as well as a subject of philosophical and religious interest, throughout recorded history. The scientific study of dreams is called oneirology.

Dreams mainly occur in the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep—when brain activity is high and resembles that of being awake. REM sleep is revealed by continuous movements of the eyes during sleep. At times, dreams may occur during other stages of sleep. However, these dreams tend to be much less vivid or memorable.

Dreams can last for a few seconds, or as long as twenty minutes. People are more likely to remember the dream if they are awakened during the REM phase. The average person has about 3 to 5 dreams per night, but some may have up to 7 dreams in one night. The dreams tend to last longer as the night progresses. During a full 8-hour night sleep, two hours of it is spent dreaming.

Dreams have been seen as a connection to the unconscious. They range from normal and ordinary to overly surreal and bizarre. Dreams can have varying natures, such as frightening, exciting, magical, melancholic, adventurous, or sexual. The events in dreams are generally outside the control of the dreamer, with the exception of lucid dreaming, where the dreamer is self-aware. Dreams can at times make a creative thought occur to the person or give a sense of inspiration.

Opinions about the meaning of dreams have varied and shifted through time and culture. Dream interpretations date back to 5000-4000 BC. The earliest recorded dreams were acquired from materials dating back approximately 5,000 years, in Mesopotamia, where they were documented on clay tablets. In the Greek and Roman periods, the people believed that dreams were direct messages from the gods, or from the dead and that they predicted the future. Some cultures practiced dream incubation with the intention of cultivating dreams that are prophetic.

The Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, who developed the discipline of psychoanalysis, wrote extensively about dream theories and interpretations. He explained dreams as manifestations of our deepest desires and anxieties, often relating to repressed childhood memories or obsessions. In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud developed a psychological technique to interpret dreams and devised a series of guidelines to understand the symbols and motifs that appear in our dreams." He stopped talking and raised his eyebrows. "So, have you fallen asleep yet? No? Good. I would like you to use a notebook to record your dreams."

He picked up one of the books out of a box that had been tucked under his desk and held it up. "Until you can train yourself to remember tour dreams, it might be best to keep the notebook beside your bed with a pen and then write down your dreams as soon as you wake up." He put the book back down again. "I would like for you to start today off by writing down what you can remember from your dreams last night. I have spare books if you need a spare."

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

The papers were interesting and her attention was lifted from them as an over-eager student crossed the room and took that table beside her own. Her own face may as well have been carved from marble for the amount of reaction she gave the girl's friendly look. It wasn't that Cara was a snob, she just didn't feel that the classroom was a place to make new acquaintances.

She had only just returned to the papers when the teacher stood up and addressed them. She folded her hands on her desk as she gave the man her undivided attention. If he was at the board, she would have a pen in her hand. She nodded when he said that he was just going to repeat fist session, which was fair enough when she was the only student left from that class.

As he began to speak, she turned back to the papers that were on her table and continued reading through them and started taking notes when it got to things she felt she should take notes on - even though her memory was a notebook enough for her. While she was writing notes, she listened to what Mr D'arcy was saying.