A child of a Lesser God

This paper describes work with a man who was severely disabled physically. It taught me the profound emotional effects of such disability; but the effects of his feeling that he had not been loved because of his disability seemed even more important and farreaching. Everything was much worse because of the development stage at which it had all occurred. It is important to make known the use which he made of analytical psychotherapy, for others like him could be helped.

I refer to some of the psychoanalytical literature which proved relevant to my work with this patient, give a report of his case, and describe the incidence of his sessions. After describing the beginning stage, I write selectively of work around the two main themes which can be identified: one, when he seemed locked in the closed system which constituted his inner world (Fairbairn 1958) from which he could gain relief only by sabotaging himself and the therapy; the other, when little by little the system began to open and gradually some investment in life began to emerge. There is then a brief account of the ending planned to a known date. The paper ends with some reflections on the work.