Discussion of Beryl Sandford's Article, A Patient and Her Cats

This sad and beautiful clinical report on the Cat Girl reminds me of an enchanting book by E. B. White, Charlotte's Web. To have given this lonely girl the mother she needed is the remarkable achievement of her analyst. The careful interpretive work and the intuitive seeking for material from Elsie's cats and her home are indicative of this analyst's willingness to search for meaningful cathexis wherever she can find it.

I assume the dream material was barren and rarely useable. The living death of Elsie stalks us throughout this report. Elsie literally rescues herself from death by using the

reliable childhood object, “the cat next door.” Then Elsie, in the presence of her benevolent new mother, builds a cat family that provides a reenactment of her past, makes restitution and offers more positive maternal introjects. I would guess that “the cat next door” died before the pregnancy and birth of Elsie's brother. The brother temporarily gave tremendous relief for Elsie from her destructive wishes towards the unborn brother and the pregnant mother. The maggots and berries scene seems to be a distorted reenactment of feelings toward the pregnant mother.

Finally, the cat family included the resurrected mother and child, the new mother (analyst), and her daughter (Elsie). These scenes with the cat in the office and the visits to Elsie's home resemble a critical sequence of dreams which illuminate a more traditional working through of the transference to a more tenable human relationship.

To say that cats are not very dependent on their masters is to reveal either the prejudice of a dog lover, or ignorance of cat behavior. Elsie's cats performed precisely in a well-structured intimacy. Then too, we know that domesticated animals are used by man to represent and gratify various aspects of his inner world. Cats in our times often represent the sphinx mother, the daughter of the witch, the cold bitch, or the distant, destructive, howling “nut.” Cat worship is still with us i