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This paper represents a study of an additional syndrome in a series of several previously reported. All derive from the incomplete dissolution of, or fixation upon, the primary identification of the mother-child symbiosis; and may coexist in the same patient, as might be expected in view of their common roots. Several factors are common to all the syndromes. There are distortions in ego functioning, especially in identification. Prominent are multiple part-object identifications with breast and phallus of the phallic mother and with her castrated body image. These part-self images are cathected predominantly by destructive aggression and have passive incorporative aims in relation to the narcissistic ideal image of a total-self—the phallic mother. Noteworthy is failure in accomplishing the final phase of identification—assimilation. Attempted transitions from the self-image of an organ to that of a total organism are not felt as a gradual maturational process in terms of accretion and differentiation but rather are felt (and feared) as sudden, cataclysmic emergencies into a new and definitive state, strongly suggestive of the process of birth, in effect—rebirth.
Keeping these common factors in mind, I deem it useful to include here a very brief recapitulation of the theme of rebirth as it appears in the previous studies, in each of which it has a different form and significance. Incidentally, the term motif in the title was chosen because it is more generic than fantasy, inasmuch as the latter, though clear in some cases, is in other cases more obscure and less recognizable by the patient as such.
In working through aspects of passivity with patients who stuttered (7), (8) several dwelt on the difficulties and futility of changing to a more active role. They indulged in wishful thinking akin to the proverbial jumping out of one's skin and becoming someone completely different. It recalled to mind the remark of another observer (13) about 'patients who wish f