The Aging as a Transitory Symptom

Abstract

The situation of a male patient, aged thirty nine, is reported. During a number of months of the treatment, this patient had the appearance of an old woman. Throughout this period, his physic aspect changed radically; he resembled no longer the vigorous young man he had been till then. Not only did he looked old in his manner, but the most remarkable change could be noticed on his face. He had made his teeth to be extracted; he clenched his jaws and lolled his tongue out of his mouth, as old people do. The analysis showed that “aging” constituted a projective identification with his old mother, as a defense against a considerable increase of his paranoid anxieties; increase caused by the impact of an external situation. Those anxieties are described in connection with the present conflict of the patient, and with the transference and some infantile dynamism. The double meaning of “old” and “baby” of the symptom is pointed out. Finally the depressive anxieties are described. They account for the patient’s aspect of an old sad woman by introjective identification with his dead mother; this identification was the result of his guilt towards his mother, owing to the phantasy of his having destroyed her