across. I wish I could read the paper.
*Eddison, E. 1935, *Depression: Normal and Abnormal, Jounal of Mental
Science.
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/abstract/81/333/370?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=crying&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
<http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/abstract/81/333/370?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=crying&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT>
I'm not even fit to comment on it. Here's the abstract verbatim. There's
lots of opportunity for ridicule but I think that's a weakness in
myself. This would have been the best science of the day. I think there
seems to be the influence of Freud's ideas here which was the fashion at
the time but I could be wrong. I don't know much about Freud.
There's merriment in this paper for the snooty but there's wisdom too.
Its just above my current level.
"
1. The stimulus-free state is rejected as a goal.^
2. Individual^ organisms in an organized group exhibit as a whole^
the same^ adhesive tendency which their component cells share^
in common^ (Trotter).^
3. The primary group is the mother and child who,^ from the point^
of view of the child, form one organism.^
4. The^ child is happy when its union with its mother is not
disputed.^ Its troubles begin when the mother puts it down or
something^ goes wrong with breast-feeding. Union with the mother
represents^ pleasure and continuity of the cell-mass. Tearing the
child^ from its mother constitutes pain and a wound in the
cell-mass^ of which both form a part. At first the mother and
later the^ father are instrumental in causing pain.^
5. Weaning assumes traumatic^ importance, and the wound caused by^
such a painful excision^ can only be healed, in the case of a^
boy, by obtaining a mother^ substitute. In marriage the twain^
shall become one flesh.^
6. Depression^ and hate are aroused whenever pain is produced.
Both^ occur normally^ at weaning, and again at the anal stage.
The^ education of the^ sphincters, forcing the child again to
part^ with what it regards^ as a portion of itself, reopens the
wound^ of weaning.^
7. Normal^ grief in adult life represents a regression to the oral^
stage.^ Without grief and its regression, healing of the
reopened^ wound^ is not possible. When a loved one is lost,
re-adjustment^ is^ only possible by starting again at the
beginning, at the^ oral^ stage. This is seen also in physical
disease when a placebo^ is demanded in order to heal the external
wound (disease) in^ the ego. The meaning of the oral approach in
love-making and^ the function of the kiss become apparent. The
completeness of^ the regression is sometimes shown by involuntary
movements of^ the buccal muscles accompanying kisses.^
8. In response to an^ external danger the source of the threat is^
invested with hate,^ while the external defensive barrier is^
reinforced by apprehension.^ Similarly, with regard to a threat^
from within, anxiety reinforces^ the internal barrier.^
9. Melancholic grief originates from fixation^ at the oral stage.^
10. Normal grief represents regression to the^ oral stage, at which^
*crying* is a natural reaction to separation^ from the mother
or^ to other injuries.^
11. The anxiety which precedes^ the melancholic attack reinforces^
the barrier against stimuli^ from within. The melancholic
attack^ follows rupture of the internal^ barrier. Attempts at
transference^ fail and the wound of weaning^ is reopened. The
self-reproaches^ are directed against the mother^ who, once an
external threat,^ is now, through introjection,^ an internal
threat.^
12. With regard to the Oedipus situation, a^ man heals the wound of^
weaning by choosing a mother-substitute^ and so retains his
mother.^ It is suggested that in the case^ of a girl primary
masochism^ prompts her to invite the injury^ of weaning or,
rather, the^ reopening of the wound. She thereupon^ identifies
herself with^ the lost love-object, i.e. her mother,^ by a
melancholia-like^ reaction. This is supported by the idea,once
common among unmarried^ women, that marriage involves some^
vague, undefined suffering.^
"
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