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February 5, 1968. THE 'BOY FRIEND', THE 'GIRL FRIEND': PSYCHOANALYTIC INVESTIGATION OF A MANNERISM OF SPEECH. C. Philip Wilson, M.D.
Dr. Wilson presented clinical material from a group of analytic patients who evidenced a tenacious use of a speech mannerism: the 'boy friend' or the 'girl friend'. The patients all had sexual relations with adult men or women and a degree of friendly object relations; however, it was a condition of the relationship that they refer to the man as the 'boy friend' and the woman as the 'girl friend'. The author believes that the pathological use of this speech mannerism represents a regression in the ego. The specific psychodynamics in these patients were: superego conflicts, a degree of psychopathy, identification difficulties, latent homosexual conflicts, and castration fears.
It is suggested that some analyses fail because of a failure to interpret speech mannerisms. In patients who utilize them pathologically, the defensive use of the mannerism represents a potential threat to the therapeutic alliance. In the speech mannerism of Dr. Wilson's patients, a number of primary defenses were condensed: denial, rationalization, and ego regression. Detailed study of other mannerisms of speech might reveal additional combinations of defenses and give us a better understanding of the different structuring of defenses in various neuroses.