**This is a short story for my Psych class. I love it. We had to mention these words:
- Free association
- unconscious
- ego
- Id
- Inferiority Complex
- (2) Defense Mechanisms
- personality
- psychoanalysis
- Superego
I think I got it good!
~Enjoy~
She’s had this obsession with dragonflies since she was little. In the fields of wildflowers at sunset, Anita would dance with the glistening dragonflies. She would sing and play until they disappeared in the grass. At that time, she was sad and she didn’t smile until the next morning. She would always go outside and play. She wasn’t the type of child to be hooked on electronics or sucked into the real world. Playing with the dragonflies was her world, until she had to start school. She was so reluctant, her parents tried to force her to go, and she would end up skipping the whole day to look for her dragonflies. Her parents always scolded her, and she ended up with an attendant by her side at every waking moment of the day.
Anita always had trouble in school, she was in a daze all day and made no friends. She was going to school, living through her own personal hell, unconscious of the day passing by, until the final bell rang. Her eyes would focus and light up, she would smile and run to the doors. She was always the first one out. Everyday was like that, she never participated in school, she just went through the motions of being there and dealing with it, alone.
One day, Anita hysterically ran though the front doors of their manor.
“Mommy! The faeries are gone! They are gone!” She cried. Her mother stood over her and embraced her.
“It’s alright, they will be back. The faeries are your precious friends.” She smoothed her hair down, but Anita was still anxious. She was put to bed after hours of crying, her father and mother worried for her as they chatted about the recent news of the fields.
“They are tearing it down tomorrow afternoon.” Her father sighed. “Anita will be devastated. She will never grow with others because of this.”
“Don’t sigh like that, she will get through this. As she attends school, she will learn of the harsh world. We just have to be here to support her. She is young, and weak. Her personality will expand as time grows, but it first must experience hardships for it to live truly.” Her mother reassured him.
“Let’s take her somewhere after school, pick her up and treat her to something. The butterfly garden perhaps. She would love that.” They nodded and made reservations.
Anita woke with swollen eyes and she headed to school with her assistant.
“Your mother and father have wonderful plans for you.” She smiled.
“What are they?”
“It’s a surprise, but you will love it.”
“Sammi, tell me!”
They laughed and the kids in the class seemed astonished at her smile.
“You can talk!” A boy yelled. “She smiled!” The girls in her class squealed.
Anita hid behind Sammi, and backed away.
“I’m sorry, kids, she is a little shy.”
“It’s okay, but, Anita… You can play with us too.” A girl walked up to her and smiled. Anita felt a pang in her chest and pointed her head down.
“Say something. It’s rude not to accept or reject the offer.” Sammi lectured Anita and she replied with a shake of her head. The little girl seemed heart broken, but accepted it and moved on.
Sammi soon took notice, not only of her obsession with dragonflies but, her inferiority complex toward other children and people. Anita’s parent’s believed that she could develop more of an ego, however Sammi was led to believe that her complex was standing in the way of her abilities to socialize and communicate with other people.
Throughout the school day, Anita was quite. She seemed to forget about the excitement waiting after school, until the bell rang and her parents walked in.
“Anita, it’s time,” Her father picked her up in her arms.
“Where are we going, Papa?” He just smiled and told her to wait till they were there. Anita gleamed with excitement and she bounced in her seat, all the way to the butterfly garden.
Anita was speechless in the garden. She smiled and laughed with the fluttering butterflies.
“So many faeries!” She beamed.
The day ended to fast and Anita was tired.
“When we get home, go to bed.” Her mother said.
Anita nodded and dozed off during the car ride. They arrived home and out of nowhere, Anita’s attitude perked up.
“I need to see my faeries. If they came back!” She ran out the door before her parents could stop her. They followed her to the hill. Anita stood there with no voice for the sight she saw. The land was bare, no wildflowers and no dragonflies.
Her father picked her up and they headed home. She didn’t cry, talk, or move. She was frozen. The next day, Sammi, Anita and her parents, drove to the hospital. Doctor Holfeldt was in the medical field under mental care. He specialized in psychoanalysis and the study of the Id, Ego, and the Superego which all pertains to personality. He was also considered to be a counselor in the hospital. He examined Anita, and tried to uncover some issues with her. The doctor met with her parents and decided to speak with them about their daughter’s autism. They were shocked at the news but it was expected of her behavior.
“It’s called free association.” The doctor told them.
“What is it?” They asked.
“I will let her ramble on and on about her obsession and perhaps we can help her through her sudden shock of losing her friends and, essentially, her focus of life.” They agreed to let them speak, however, they wanted to hear her ramble as well. So the compromised and Dr. Holfeldt planned to record their conversation.
He met with Anita alone and present some of her favorite things to her. Her mother told the Doctor that she loved Dragonflies, and she called them faeries.
“Do you like faeries?”
At the word faerie, Anita sat upright and nodded excessively.
“Can you tell me about the faeries? The ones on the hill and the ones in the botanical garden. Tell me everything.” Dr. Holfedlt smiled sweetly and caringly as he handed her a picture of a dragonfly. She yelped and started rambling on. He took brief notes and asked more provoking questions when she stopped talking. After a two months of these visits, Anita looked more alive and well. He met with her parents again, and he discussed her problems once more.
“She is in denial, and she is trying to repress all that is happening. According to this recording,” He hands it to the parents. “She is certainly obsessed with dragonflies, or faeries. I don’t know why exactly, but it is holding her back from social life. This isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just hindering.” The parents listened attentively as Sammi played with Anita in the waiting room. She was mumbling and active, but she looked sad and heartbroken.
“Don’t worry, you will meet your faerie friends again. They will always be with you.” Sammi smiled but Anita didn’t pay attention.
Her parents exited the office with a plain face, they picked up Anita and they all left the office. The car ride was empty and the atmosphere was dull.
“We will move after you finish the year of school. There is only a month left, but you can handle it.”
The father broke the silence.
“What, honey?” Anita’s mother replied.
“We will move. Anita is not happy here no longer. Her dreams were crushed with the destruction of her ‘palace’ and her friends. I want what is best for her.” Sammi and the mother nodded to her fathers proposal.
“Anita. We will move to a farm, there will be flowers everywhere. You will make many new friends and you will meet faeries from all over.” Anita perked up with happiness. The drive home became more bearable.
“Thank you, daddy.” Anita finally smiled for the future.
Writing a Paige 