DR. MERRITT GAVE SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES AGE HAS OVER YOUTH:

1. A LARGE AND VARIED EXPERIENCE WITH LIFE.

2.

FINANCIAL COMPETENCE.

3. SPECIAL INTERESTS. AN EXAMPLE WAS A GENTLEMAN 90 YEARS OLD WHO IS KNOWN AS "R. CALIFORNIA." THIS GENTLEMAN IS REPUTED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT CALIFORNIA HISTORY THAN ANYONE ELSE. THE MORAL HERE SEEMED TO BE THAT THERE WERE GREAT ADVANTAGES TO BE HAD IN MAKING ONESELF AN AUTHORITY IN SOME SPECIAL FIELD OF KNOWLEDGE,

THE OLDER PERSON IS IN A POSITION TO OFFER GENUINE FRIENDSHIP AND FRIENDLINESS.

DR. MERRITT ENDED HIS ADDRESS ON THE NOTE THAT IF THE OLDER PERSON COULD LEARN TO ACCEPT HIMSELF, TO DEVELOP SATISFACTORY INTELLECTUAL PURSUITS AND HOBBIES, TO BE GOOD COMPANY WITH HIMSELF WHEN HE WAS ALONE, THEN HE NEVER NEEDED TO "CRUISE" FRANTICALLY NOR WORRY ABOUT HIS FATE, THAT FRIENDS WOULD INVARIABLY SEEK HIM OUT!

Panel Discussion

Eric Julbor, attorney, Los Angeles, Chairman. Blancho M. Baker, M.D., Ph.D., psychiatrist, San Francisco.

Trent E. Bossent, Ph.D., chief clinical psychologist, Metropolitan State Hospital, Norwalk, Calif.

W. Dorr Logg, A.B., B.M., M.L.D., director, ONE Instituto.

Vita S. Sommors, Ph.D., clinical psychologist, Los Angeles.

Mr. Julber asked the members of the panel to give their genoral views on "Mental Health and Homosexuality" bofore proceeding to the panel discussion propor.

Dr. Bessent did not feel that the topic at hand ne oessarily had any inner relationship; that whother homosexuality and the problem of mental health related or not depended on the culture, the time and

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