An Infantile, Preliminary Phase of 'Defiance by Lack of Affect'

There is a type of patient, as Ferenczi has quite recently pointed out, who produces no phantasies invested with affect, nor indeed any genuine affect at all, and who speaks of the most agitating experiences and recollections without becoming in the least agitated. A patient of mine uses this lack of affect entirely for purposes of resistance. He expresses his defiance of the rules of analysis by a complete indifference to analysis itself and to the analyst. I have been able to ascertain that this stoical equanimity has always been his most powerful weapon throughout the rest of his life as well. He has been in the habit of tormenting father-substitutes almost to death; he works them into a violent passion in order that he may express his own superiority by remaining entirely without emotion.

The patient came for treatment on account of obsessional characteristics; in spite of numerous sexual relationships he is wholly on the anal-sadistic level of libidinal organization.