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Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Vol. XVII, No. 4, 1948.
Myths from antiquity, incantations and customs from many lands are cited to prove the thesis—the thread of life is the umbilical cord and the final separation from the world is but a repetition of the first separation when the physical unity of mother and child is disrupted. That the 'thread' is the umbilical symbolism is unmistakable. In the rules and myths discussed, it is believed it is a pre-conscious substitute for the ever threatening castration anxiety.