Letter to Psychiatrist: Dr. Singh 3/30/98

TO: Dr. Singh
FROM: Gary Freedman
DATE March 30, 1998
RE: Attached Article -- "The Exceptions" -- Childhood Trauma -- Superego Development
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Further to my letter (and accompanying materials) to you dated September 30, 1997 I forward an article recently published in The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child (Volume 52: 1997 annual) titled "The Exceptions: Structural and Dynamic Aspects."

The article lends further support to my belief that a physical trauma I suffered in early childhood (aged 2.5) had important consequences for my superego development and characterological development. The article reports the case of a patient whose physical injury in childhood, and the aftermath of that injury, led to the development of a harsh, primitive superego that failed to become integrated into a mature ego-superego structure; the patient also suffered from a fate neurosis in adulthood in which she repeatedly relived the affects of the trauma and its aftermath through her disturbed interpersonal relations.

The author discusses important features of the patient's character that parallel features of my own personality: rebellion against authority, a feeling of differentness, and social needs that seek fulfillment through other persons who also present characterological features of the "exceptions."