Rhythms of People: From Office to Research

Evolving a research project from the vantage point of a private practitioner doing individual therapy takes a certain kind of rigor. It is only by careful observation, using hunches, persisting, following through, and then putting together with a sense of imagination, can projects be designed. The therapeutic use of liver for pernicious anemia had this kind of history; and it is reported that Kekule had a dream of the benzene ring during his sleep.

Some years ago, while working with a male homosexual patient, I observed a pattern of his repeating the number three—i.e., “I went to the third floor in a building on 33rd street,” and “I bought three ties for 30 dollars.” His associations revolved around his identifying process such as “Who am I?” Usually there was a constructive reevaluation of himself at the time. The same phenomenon occurred with the number seven. Further associations led to three being the more receptive, the “softer,” whereas the seven was the more aggressive. My hunch was that since the life force had a rhythmic flow like the heart beat, the “threeing” and “sevening” were related to the rhythmic aspect of human beings that come from the “real self.” This is definitely not a “numerological” phenomenon. Later on in working with children, especially little girls with sexual problems, I observed that some of them could add eight and two, nine and one, etc., but had trouble with seven and three. It is interesting that in the “new math” they teach from zero to ten, so that when the child comes to the number ten he is already familiar with the zero and just has to learn one new concept, the ten. It is also interesting to note the prevalence of three and seven in our culture. There are innumerable examples —“one, two, three, go,” 007, 7-Up. To me, every person is made up of three people: his mother, his father and himself.

Since the “threeing” was connected with the “real self,” the obvious place for the follow-through was somewhere in the birth process. I o