Nail Biting and the Integrative Process1

Nail biting has been a subject of great interest to students of human behaviour. This symptom and tremulousness have been regarded as universal yardsticks in the overt display of emotional tension. This brief presentation will be limited to a discussion of the psycho-dynamics of nail biting, particularly as it is related to the integrative process of the ego.

In the development of the infant, the mouthhand relationship is established very early. The hand touches the breast or the bottle and later reaches for things which are brought to the mouth. Thus grasping and sucking become correlated in the acquisitive 'getting' or 'taking' process. With the onset of the impulse to bite (both before and after the emergence of the teeth) the hand function develops the quality of scratching and clawing. The infant both bites at the nipple and claws at the breast (or its equivalent) in later stages of nursing. Thus the oral sadistic impulse is shared by both the mouth and the hand as a further development of the impulse to devour. In carnivorous animals, of course, this clawing-biting co-ordination is superbly manifest both in capturing the prey and consuming the carcass. Our theme will concern itself with the biting-clawing impulse and will show its relation to the symptom of nail biting.

Emotional tension or anxiety results when the organism is beset by two or more conflicting motivations. The specific symptoms which develop from the conflict situation depend upon the age period in which the individual is traumatized and upon the previous history of mastery or frustration of the basic motivations. Nail biting as such does not occur in infancy. Finger sucking is the usual form of gratification which is used by the infant to relieve tension. Nail biting seems to occur during the oedipal phase of development, often as a successor to finger (thumb) sucking. The thumb sucking seems to be the phase to which most children regress as a fixation point of previous gratificati