Witches—bad and Good—Maternal Psychopathology as a Developmental Interference

THIS PAPER WILL DESCRIBE THE TREATMENT OF AN ADOLEScent girl who felt, and in certain ways was, "bewitched" by her mother. Just at the time when development dictated a move away from home, family, and mother, Emma Gray became seriously "stuck," preferring not to make the move but to stay at home, close to her mother. Emma's mother appeared quite comfortable with her daughter's choice, stating openly that the world was indeed a very dangerous place.

In the initial diagnostic discussion of this case at the Hampstead Clinic, the diagnostician told of stories Emma had written about a girl who turned to stone when the mother was not with her. Anna Freud thought that one ought to look at this idea, as well as at Emma's other abnormalities, in terms of her conflicts. If the conflict was seen from the viewpoint of the mother-child relationship, then Emma felt she was no one without her mother (i.e., turned to stone, dead); but if Emma was using her mother to control her own impulses, a different picture would emerge: without mother, she would have been exposed to her wishes and drives—and she would sooner be dead. Anna Freud added that Emma appeared to use the outside world both to help her forward