Triathlon physiology and “Women who marry houses.”
A friend who went to Harvard told me once. “I have a great supervisor, a very old one, his name is Robert Seidenberg.” I asked him how he found him; he said that when he read a book on Agoraphobia. He was surprised that the author was in Syracuse.
Dr. Robert Seidenberg, who became an outspoken psychiatrist on feminism and gender roles and served as president of the Greater Syracuse chapter of the National Organization for Women, died Sunday in his DeWitt home. He was 90.
Seidenberg was an author, retired professor and tireless supporter of equal rights for women, according to family and friends. “He was a great feminist,” Dana Seidenberg said. “He loved the life of the mind. He was generous to people. He hated anything to do with snobbery or class arrogance.”
He published seven books and hundreds of articles over two decades on the history of psychiatry, the search for equality in marriage and changing gender roles. “Corporate Wives — Corporate Causalities?” explored the struggle of women who lose their personal lives as their husbands move to rise up the corporate ladder.
Robert wrote the book, “Women Who Marry Houses: Panic and Protest in Agoraphobia.” I called him up and asked him to be my supervisor. He said that it would depend on how much I want it. We had a supervisor for four patients and we chose the patient for the supervisor.
I had the first interview in his office. He was 76-years-old. He was with his feet on the desk when I entered and he said, “It took me 40 years to be able to put my feet on the desk.” I was young and dumb and laughed. Afterwards, in supervision, he said: “When I was young, people called me ‘dirty Jew’ when I was walking on the street,” “I was called Robert because I needed to be assimilated in the culture.” I learned to see patients and life in a cybernetic mode with Robert.
What does it have to do with triathlon training? Everything has an impact on the physiology of the triathlete; and the triathlete has an impact on his environment. Remember what Paul Bergen says about having parents when comparing horse training with human training (TRIATHLON PHYSIOLOGY FOR DUMMIES AND THE TENDENCY TOWARD THE MEAN, ninth part). THE TENDENCY TOWARD THE MEAN IN THE FAMILY determines the athletes’ outcome regarding performance.
Historically, what is now called regression toward the mean has also been called reversion to the mean and reversion to mediocrity.
I had a patient brought by his family, six-year-old boy, whose family complaint was: “He cries when the bad guy dies in the movie.” He came from an environment full of violence. He was just following his heroes but the family could not see it. We had athletes with the same characteristic; that is how we have learned about human beings.
Robert did many things for me. I thanked him when leaving supervision after a year; and on the way of exiting his office in the corridor, he yelled at me from his desk before I reached the door: “Be careful, every boy born in a Catholic country wants to be like Jesus and ends crucified.” We want to be as our heroes, that is what limits us. At the end, it is so simple, “YOU SHOULD CHOOSE YOUR HEROES AND FOLLOW THEM IF YOU WANT TO BE CHAMPION.” The physiology just follows once you have the right heroes.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire