Too Many Wishes

Once upon a time, not a long time ago, in a world , not far away, there lived a psychiatrist named Raymond Burr. His original name was Raymond Burrostovitch but he had it legally shortened to Burr for professional as well as personal reasons. You may recognize the name as it was often seen in the tabloids for Dr. Burr was for many years the psychiatrist of the stars and very rich. Into his Hollywood office came those whose names and faces were known in almost every home in America ( Old Order Amish excluded).

Now Dr. Burr was a good psychiatrist , in point of fact , he was a great psychiatrist .He really changed lives. Because of him stars that had been divorced five or six times were finally able to find true love. Child stars were delivered from the trauma of having grown up in the studio instead of a home. Stars recommended him to their friends  ( Those that had friends). The rich also flocked to him. At one time or another he worked with every wealthy family in the country. They flew to Hollywood and rented a mansion just to be seen by him. He got results.

Because of all this and his very, very high fees he became one of the richest men in America. Of course his investing most of his money in a new company called Microsoft didn’t hurt either.

But Dr. Burr wasn‘t interested in money . He was a man with a mission. He believed that  he had found the doorway into a person’s psyche . He had a breakthrough that would revolutionize psychiatry. He was writing the book that would , in the future, be required reading for all students of psychiatry. It was to be titled “ Wishing as the doorway to the person within”.

When a person had been with him four sessions or so and he was sure they wouldn’t lie to him he would ask two questions.

First he asked “ If you could have one wish what would you wish for?” The answer to that question he wrote on a four by five index card. Later he would add a comment  to it. Of course, it also went into the patient’s record.

Then he asked “if you had three wishes what would you wish for?” These also he recorded on a four by five card.

From the patient’s wishes Dr. Burr could see where the real pain was. He could then bring all of his own great talent to bear to heal that pain.