ABSTRACT
Let us return one last time to Mr R’s stone-removing-and-replacing behavior. According to Freud, there was a ‘battle between love and hate’ raging in Mr R’s breast. Like fear and anger, love and hate are emotions which are there in elemental forms in infancy, but which develop complexity, structure and depth throughout life. We are now in a position to see that in all his stone-placing activity, Mr R is not only expressing his love and his hate, he also is inhibiting the development of those very emotions. As we read the case history, we see that Mr R keeps himself so busy expressing obsessional acts, so busy expressing this emotion, warding off that fear, that he has no time or space to develop the very emotions that he is expressing in immature forms. Mr R feels anxiety quickly and he tolerates it badly. As soon as he feels it, he rushes off in one direction or other. The hectic rushing from one task to the next expresses his anxiety – but it also keeps it at bay. It gives him something to do. The overall outcome of this rushing around is to inhibit the maturation of emotional life.
