| Abstract: | This case demonstrates unique features connected with the parental deafness: the patient's anger toward women, his splitting of objects into all-good and all-bad, ease of regression, yearning for the symbiotic mother particularly as it was related to space as a transitional phenomenon into which he brooked no intrusion, his unique interests and creativity, his method of teaching, the shaping of the Oedipus complex by preoedipal trauma, and his feeling of entitlement with need to be treated as an exception. I have attempted to demonstrate the relation of the preverbal and preoedipal traumata, stemming from the deaf-mutism of the parents of a hearing child, to the patient's pathology, the shaping of his oedipal constellation, and character traits. I have described the compensatory ego functions that resulted in the development of creative, professional ability. Also, I have tried to demonstrate the complicated multiple overdetermination of his symptoms and aspects of his character formation. |
