ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter we considered people whose developing sense of self was constantly interrupted by the effect of an environment in which they were repeatedly made to turn towards the outer world. Ceaselessly, a reality that came from outside was forced upon them. This state of affairs culminates in a habitual state of experiencing, which I call stimulus entrapment. It is a form of disability that is often quite subtle, since it is not observed by those who do not know the individual well. Sometimes, indeed, he or she seems a model person, active, busy, very competent in those situations, such as committee work, in which linear thinking is important. When, however, such a person enters treatment for a prevailing sense of deadness, the true picture emerges. The presenting picture is dominated by catalogues of events and of responses to stimuli. The patient talks endlessly of problems with family, with work, and of bodily sensations. In this chronicle, nothing comes from an interior world. In essence, the patient seems unable to imagine. Consciousness is adualistic. Re¯ective awareness of inner events is barely operative.
