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Fenichel thinks that many different situations are covered by the word boredom. He considers that boredom is characterized by an urge to activity, accompanied by an inhibition of activity and that this contradiction is at the core of the problem. In pathological boredom there is an instinctual tension of which the aim has been repressed; this means that when the bored person turns to other people to help him to find distraction, he is also seeking their aid in maintaining his repression. Restlessness is akin to boredom, but in boredom energy is tonically bound while in restlessness it is clonically bound.
In considering the connexion between monotony and boredom, Fenichel points out that a monotonous stimulus may be boring or irritating, act as a soporific or excite to ecstasy (as in primitive dancing). In analysis one finds that a monotonous stimulus will cause anxiety if it reminds the patient of the primal scene. The child who has once experienced the primal scene is in the same state of tension, desire and frustration, as is the adult suffering from boredom; on the one hand he demands the repetition of the scene and on the other, to be helped to forget about it. Boredom may therefore be looked upon as an intense excitement which has disappeared. It is akin to depersonalization.
Fenichel illustrates a part of the above with case material which shows, as it were in statu nascendi, how an active libidinal aim is turned to its passive counterpart. The patient hoped, that if something were done to him, he might find relief from the tension, which he did not dare relieve by active means.
Boredom is not only related to restlessness and depersonalization, it is also akin to depression and perhaps depression and narcissistic requirements play a leading part in it. Its oral quality is further shown in the relief looked for in eating, drinking and smoking. Its connexion with a dislike of being alone, points to a fear of onanism, as one determinant. Normal boredom i