Justice and the Arbitrator: Some Clinical Observations Concerning the Concept of Justice

Material from a patient yielded some insight into the historical development (on a psychological level) of some of the aspects of the concept of justice. A thirty-one-year-old male came to analysis because of impotence. He wished to have a family but, although he had been married for two years, he had not yet achieved penetration. It was revealed that while he expressed concern over his lack of ability in sexual relations, he was not interested in sexual pleasure. His concern was that since he had not produced children according to the conventional expectation, he would be condemned. He was an intelligent, sensitive, artistic person who had been reared by a frigid mother who could not show affection (except toward her mother, to whom she was pathologically attached in a highly ambivalent manner). The mother and the grandmother became for our patient somewhat divergent symbols of types of femininity, both dangerous. The father, on the other hand, was capable of some warmth but was a selfstyled disciplinarian who (while trying to attain obedience) lost stature by a demonstration of helplessness and weakness in the face of failure. In addition, his occupation and his mannerisms gave the patient the impression that his father was rough, uncouth, dirty, and masculine in an ugly and ineffectual sense. The patient was a sickly child over-protected and spoiled during his early years while discipline was exacted in confusing dosages. His parents were never of one mind about anything. They certainly did not see eye to eye concerning the patient so that he never really knew how far he could go nor what he could do. The things in which he became interested were alternately praised