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The intake procedure for Ms. A. consisted of the following reports by three Treatment Center analysts and the discussion that followed by the Intake Committee.
Ms. A., aged twenty-six, was interviewed three times. She is a thin, timid-looking woman who wears an air of chronic sadness which is interspersed with flashes of wit, good humor, and the merest hint of sudden rage. Her initial low-key presentation barely disguises an intense emotionality kept in check by a defensive wall of good manners and socially determined restraints.
She dresses in slightly arty, waiflike costumes, all with an atmosphere of scruffiness. Her immediate presentation is that of a very unhappy child who longs to be rescued and who reaches out fearfully. In a short while we learn that she fears rejection and we can quickly infer that she is very guilty and thinks that rejection is deserved.
She speaks quietly, and shyness prevails as she unfolds a narrative which has been thought out, but not rehearsed. The productions have a freshness and they are addressed to the interviewer; that is they are not precooked and suitable for any listener. She wants to be understood.
The narrative is roughly as follows. She complains of low self-esteem. She has been living with a young man for several years but broke their engagement because of his family's inferior ethnic and social status. Though she superficially rejects her family's social pretensions she is deeply identified with them insofar as they help bolster her fragile self-esteem. She met the young man in her hometown where he was attending professional school. Before meeting him she did poorly with men and finally, after some painful rejections, “fell into” a relationship “because he was kind.” (This latter