ABSTRACT
The desire that the infant experiences for the spatula is a complicated affective state. One critical ingredient in the development of the infant's desire is the mother's desire for the infant. Winnicott D. W. infants' attitudes toward the shiny, tantalizing metal object and towards food, are inevitable precursors to their relationships with people and, ultimately, to their own desires. Helen Mark was seemingly expert at forcing those around him, his objects of desire, to experience rage at and revulsion with him, in essence attempting to annihilate his relationships and himself. While his siblings maintained a Christian lifestyle, Mark drank and used drugs and had many girlfriends, defying his strict, devout parents. One of the few events which Mark recalled keenly from this period was coming home half-stoned one night to find his grandmother, who was living with his family at the time—the same grandmother whose ear he had pulled— dead on the floor.
