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.
Autobiographies offer material on the development of mathematical interests and abilities in boys and girls. The recollection of a positive attitude towards mathematics in children who do not necessarily become mathematicians emerges in connection with the dissolution of the strong libidinal tie to the mother. When the destructive drive is inhibited, this object relationship cannot be renounced and symbols cannot replace objects. Aggressive energy is not available for the exercise of the control, dissection, and domination required by mathematical learning.
In the childhood of mathematicians there is a relatively great incidence of early loss of parents and other severe childhood deprivations. The computational prodigies display an obsessional element indicative of a weakened mother relationship. They form a bridge to emotionally isolated children with a compulsive interest in numbers. Flight into a world of abstractions replaces satisfying object relations.
Male autobiographers with positive memories of mathematical learning have all succeeded in establishing an independent identity. This may be varyingly rooted in a life lacking relationships or in freely expressed aggression.
In the childhood of women mathematicians, the difficulty of the mother relationship is marked (here in connection with the denial of femininity), while the positive element of identification with a male figure is in the foreground. Men also learn mathematics through men. The authors have tried to explore the problem of why so many of them did not.
The article is profusely illustrated with extracts from famous autobiographies.