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Yune is a woman in her fifties, married with two daughters, working as a medical doctor. She describes a childhood in a poor and traditional environment. Her mother has never been to school because girls were not allowed to leave home. Following the local customs, she married Yune’s father, moved in with her in-laws and devoted her life to her family, as a “slave to her husband,” according to Yune. Her father is depicted as violent and unpredictable, possibly the consequences of poverty and the post-traumatic effects of the wars he went through. He is a school teacher because he could not afford a full college degree.
Yune’s parents closely monitored their three daughters’ development and school. Yune was the eldest, and the most promising academically, and so she received the privilege of having the nicest bedroom all to herself. In return, she was expected to work hard and always get the best results; any frivolous activities and daydreams were carried out in secret.
After high school, where Yune fulfilled the expectations of her parents, she struggled in college for a time, and then started binging and purging. She ultimately managed to obtain her medical degree exceeding her parents’ expectations. She married a tall, handsome man who had graduated from a prestigious school.
All the parameters of Yune’s life looked successful. But instead of enjoying her success and choices, she depreciates or ignores them, treating them as if they are not part of herself; the way she does this suggests not a classic mechanism of denial or splitting, but rather a functional splitting (clivage fonctionnel), as described by Bayle (2012). For Bayle, functional splitting is a defensive reaction, usually transient, which repels psychic conflict and protects the psyche from traumatic overflows.
It seems it is thanks to her eldest daughter, who is distracted and unfocused in her studies, that Yune had the opportunity to seek help and get in contact with split-off parts of hersel