Meetings of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

February 8, 1955. RETARDATION, ACCELERATION, AND PSYCHOANALYSIS. Simon Weyl, M.D.

According to Bolk's 'retardation (foetalization) theory', man's unique physical characteristics (skull relationship, hairlessness, skin color, ventral vagina, etc.) are 'foetal forms that become permanent'. In contrast, foetal characteristics of other primates change in the course of individual development: the skull of the gorilla foetus or child, for example, has a human appearance which is subsequently lost. Temporary qualities in anthropoids are permanent in humans. This is the opposite of what one would expect under the biogenetic law. The younger the individuals, the less the difference between man and anthropoid. Endocrine function controls the developmental changes. Bolk and Freud independently concluded that a slow tempo (long infancy and latency, slow blossoming, slow aging) are human characteristics; analogously, the neuroanatomist, Bok, has emphasized that the cerebrum is subjected to a kind of retardation principle: those parts necessary for brain function develop most slowly. Dr. Weyl applies these principles to analysis, illustrating his thesis first with the reflex arc. The reflex apparatus tries to make the best possible adjustment between the organism and its inner and outer environment. The retardation factor slows the reflex, a potentially hazardous situation counteracted by various accelerating mechanisms, one of which is automatisms. The same reasoning applies to mental changes. Dr. Weyl supposes that such retardation was necessary to enable the mental functions to cope with the infinitely complex task imposed by inner and outer impressions. The (evolutionary) gradual prolongation of the infantile period, a retardation in this sense, permits the appearance of consciousness and ego formation. Without such a retardation, the human infant could not learn to cope with its world. The id and the unconscious did not undergo retardation to the same extent