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Being diagnosed with a major disease presents a traumatic threat. Ovarian cancer is one of the most deadly gynecological malignancies and leads to a focus on the importance of the social support of family and friends or feelings of isolation and lack of support. To want and need support from and closeness with family and friends in the face of the diagnosis of ovarian cancer seems adaptive, a kind of regression in the face of danger. Like other ego functions, early memories change as a function of current conflicts.
Based on Freud's screen memories paper (1899), Mayman developed an early memories procedure that has been shown to be an excellent tool for assessing current psychological functioning. Mayman (1968) also developed a scale that can be used in clinical or experimental situations for scoring“self-other relationship representations in early memories” (Mayman's libidinal level scale). The scale ranges from oral to latency configurations. We explored differences in the libidinal relationship themes and affect tone in the early memories of 13 women newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 13 community women.