Behavior: Where Were You in 1643?

Therapy for the born-again

Nancy Shiffrin, 33, a California writer, always had trouble finishing books and articles. But unlike most authors bedeviled by blocks, she now knows where her troubles began: in the 17th century. During a session with Morris Netherton, a Los Angeles therapist, she had a vision of herself as a woman on trial in America in 1677 for heresy and trying to hide an incriminating diary from her inquisitors. Three hundred years later she was still "hiding the book." But no more. After Netherton's therapy, she says: "I seem to have very little problem finishing up things now, as...

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