You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Fenichel (1934) described the state of boredom as a consequence of dammed-up instinctual tension with concomitant repression of the aim and objects of the instincts. New dynamic and structural factors responsible for the state of boredom are added.
A case study allowed for the distinction of an apathetic and agitated form of boredom. During the apathetic state the patient complained of feeling empty and longed to fill up the emptiness. When this feeling approximated to the state of psychotic depression different oral-incorporative impulses appeared: eating, fasting, drinking, homosexuality, cunnilingus, pregnancy. The state of boredom is characterized by the absence of fantasies. In depression there is a rich though morbid fantasy life, and it is the world, not the self, which is felt as empty. The emptiness in boredom represents hunger and leads to various oral activities with the aim and objects repressed. This is a manifestation of ego regression (Kris). The emptiness is not merely a sensation but a psychic representation (Isaacs). 'The emptiness represents the hungry child with the image of "no-mother", "no-breast".' The author agrees with Edith Jacobson and Edward Bibring that boredom is an affective state which is the result of certain complicated defence mechanisms. Analysis brought about a change from the apathetic to the agitated form of boredom. The feeling of emptiness persisted but with the appearance of fantasies the patients started to act; yet actions were not satisfying either; they had the character of 'diversions and distractions'. They were not egosyntonic (pleasurable or useful) or ego-dystonic (unpleasant or harmful) but rather ego-alien (with no feeling tone at all attached to them.
Boredom can occur on any level of organization, but people with 'strong oral fixations' are specially prone to it. Depression, apathy and boredom can thus be differentiated: depression follows from deprivation of love from external or internal objects,