Temporal Anniversary Manifestations: Hour, Day, Holiday

For the vulnerable individual a specific time of day, a specific day of the week, a specific season of the year, or a specific holiday can serve as a trigger or activator for the appearance of a symptom related to anniversary reactions. In earlier discussions (17), (18), I have suggested that anniversary reactions derive from pathological or uncompleted mourning. With the resolution of intrapsychic conflicts through analysis, these symptoms disappear leaving only a memory as a memorial.

A young woman in her late twenties, whose father died suddenly when she was thirteen years of age, described a daily depression each evening at 5:30 when her husband returned to the house. As the patient heard the key turn the lock, the depressed feeling would be triggered. In analysis, the patient discovered the meaning of this circumscribed reaction. As a child, she was very close to her father—his presence excited her and she waited eagerly each evening for him to return home from work. There were mutually seductive elements in the situation. After the father's sudden death, the patient affectively denied his loss and did not mourn. In analysis, she recovered her fantasies after his death, including the 'waiting at the door for his key in the lock'. She was able to recall a repetitive dream she had following his death—'Father was on a cross like Christ'. And she was able to recognize the wish in the dream—'I believed in the Resurrection. I would