The World of Disguises—Unusual Defenses in a Latency Girl

THIS PAPER IS ABOUT A CHILD WHO, IN ORDER TO FORM A RELATIONship with her mother, developed a personality characterized by a striking lack of certain real feelings. The search for these feelings and the reasons for their absence constituted a major task of treatment. I shall present material from the analysis of Amy, focusing on her rigid and unusual defenses against particular affects.

The theoretical issue I would like to raise concerns the nature of Amy's character structure. Anna Freud, in discussing this case, commented that when environmentally caused damage produces a developmental disturbance, the ensuing conflicts are not neurotic, but rather constitute character pathology. This sort of skewed development would represent an adaptive, yet insufficiently successful attempt at coping. On one level, Amy's personality was an adaptation to her mother's needs—both in reality and in Amy's perception of them. However, at the same time she was at odds with her mother—unable to obtain the kind of relationship she really needed.

One might describe Amy's initial picture as having had elements