Technical Aspects of the Analysis of a Child with a Severe Behavior Disorder

The analysis of this behavior disorder reveals in specific ways how the aggressive and destructive behavior was employed in the service of defense.

In tracing the motive for a destructive act we saw very early in the analysis how a fantasy in which the child was in extreme danger was translated into an action in which the content of the fantasy was reproduced and the ego spared itself anxiety through identification with the aggressor and through a shift from passive to active. (As in the first dream reported by Roger, the fear of castration by the faceless man was immediately translated into an action in which the child performed the symbolic destructive act upon objects in the room.) This defense served painful memories as well as fantasies. When primal-scene material emerged in the analysis, the memory of an act perceived as destructive, and as "fighting, " was translated into aggressive acting in which destruction of objects and fighting was re-enacted and that which was passively experienced through observing and overhearing was transformed into action. Ultimately, the great danger against which the ego defended itself was loss of identity. The extreme negativism and obstinacy that characterized another aspect of Roger's behavior disorder was seen as a fear of surrender to the object, the fear of becoming one with the object (2).