Denise E. Dedman, Ph.D.

 

 

                 
Helen Harris Perlman was professor of social work at the University of Chicago and an early leader in social work education. I had the chance to meet her when she visited Pauline Lide, the former associate dean at the University of Georgia. Her humor is captured by the following poem:                                                                                                                                              
  Id               

  I never saw a person's id,
  I hope I never see one.
  But I can tell you if I did
  I'd fashion me a heavy lid
  To place on it to keep it hid,
  Which is, I gather,
  what God did
  When he first saw
  a free one.
   
  Ego
  As for that middle-man, the ego -
  Ubiquitous, it goes where we go.
  Derivative? Autonomous?
  A construct? or homunculus?
  It tires to grapple, strives to see
  the nature of re-al-ity,
  Defending now, yet out to learn
  It scarely knows which way to turn,
  It has so many functions, forms,
  So many stratagies and norms -
  May heaven help us as we're groping
  To grasp how ego copes with coping!
   
  Super-Ego
  That part of ego we call super
  Is part policeman and part snooper,
  It's super-cilious and haughty
  And tries to catch you thinking naughty.
  It warns you that you will get caught
  For doing things you shouldn't ought.
      

 

 

 
 

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