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October 31, 1961. PASSIVITY: INTERPRETATIVE AND THEORETICAL ASPECTS IN PSYCHOANALYTIC TREATMENT. John E. Hughes, M.D.
Dr. Hughes described a group of patients, termed 'coasting characters', who try to get through life with a minimum of effort. He emphasized the importance of the interpretation of their passivity as a character defense and as a resistance in the analysis. Interpretations on this level proved unusually effective in initiating productive analytic work. He reviewed the concept of passivity which is based on the passive state of the foetus, the dependency and narcissism of the infant, and the biological influence of the death instinct. He pointed out the primary importance of the early mother-child relationship in the normal development of activity and productiveness.
In describing the dynamics of pathological passivity, Dr. Hughes stressed the oral and anal fixations, sadomasochism, homosexuality, and deficient sublimation. He described the simultaneous identification with the wished-for indulgent mother and the indulged child. The lives of such patients are characterized by an attempt to obtain from powerful adults what the mother had failed to give. These patients generally have unaffectionate, domineering mothers. Dr. Hughes suggested that the difficulty in bringing repressed material to consciousness was a manifestation of passivity. The reluctance of these patients to be active also represents a wish to repeat states of low tension, a wish for the peace of the inorganic world.