You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Saul is a successful research scientist in his mid-30s, who has been in analysis for ten years. He is married and lives with his wife and several children in New York City. He maintains adequate ego control over his life, and his pursuing analysis is part of a general growth endeavor rather than an attempt to correct difficulties.
Several unrelated threads have run through the progress of Saul's analysis. The purpose of this paper is to present a particular cluster of phenomena that elucidates a neurotic constellation of theoretical importance.
Saul described himself as an obsessive hummer. He spent much of the time he was not with others humming to himself. At times he would hum aloud, while at other times he would “hum in his mind.” This humming activity never interfered with his work and was seen instead as an activity that served to fill his free time when he had nothing else to do. “Nothing else to do” referred only to activities that would compete with the humming in that they required talking or listening; thus, periods of time when he would be walking, traveling, eating, or writing were not at all exempt from humming.
There was a compulsive quality to the humming in that Saul found himself humming the same tunes time after time, often year after year. Indeed, after about 15 years of the humming, his repertoire consisted of less than 12 tunes in all. These tunes did not all exist in repertoire at any one period, but instead disappeared for some time to be replaced by others, and then resurfaced again.