Ms. S was a 28-year-old married Austrian violinist who was referred for analysis by the Treatment Center. She was a short woman with a page boy haircut and no makeup, wearing a loose shift that obscured her womanly figure. She seemed childlike and asexual. She was timid but intelligent, articulate, and well-related.

She complained that she was not doing what she could to further her career. She was concerned about “sabotaging” herself. A violin teacher had told her that she “makes progress and then cancels.” Both her parents were frustrated musicians who pushed her to become a concert pianist, and she said she had passively followed a life course set by them (although she had deviated by switching her instrument from piano to violin at the time of her parents' separation when she was 16). Her mother wanted her to be a soloist but she was not taking steps in that direction; on the other hand she looked down on joining an orchestra and so was not really pursuing that avenue either.