Unresolved loss and unresolved trauma in adult mothers, and the commonly disorganized attachment pattern developed by their infants, have been repeatedly reported in longitudinal research literature as a crucial correlate or precedent of severe pathology. We describe and illustrate how unresolved loss and unresolved trauma are manifested in verbatim-transcribed language and how they are to be detected, so that psychoanalysts and clinicians in general are able to distinguish them and understand how such >states of mind< evidence the process of fragmentation they involve. We follow each example with a resolved transcript so it can be contrasted with a nonresolved case. We then describe excerpts of a taped >disorganized infant< – an example of infants who are usually babies of unresolved mothers, as shown during the Adult Attachment Interview. The analyst’s ability to identify and understand these >states of mind< and the subsequent sensitive reflection on the transcendental role of primary traumatic relations, which are involved in fear and the destructive dynamics of mental fragmentation – as seen in empirical research on attachment – can facilitate a resourceful integrative analytic scrutiny of the processes gone through by patients, and encourage the discovery of alternatives for working through the disturbing experience.
The way in which Mexicans deal with time differs considerably from that of Europeans or Northamericans: the Mexican >has< or >allows himself< more time. The virtue of punctuality, which is so highly valued in countries with protestant work ethics, is unknown to him. >Mexican time< includes many festivities and reveals a social character related to a matriarchal complex. One lives day by day without concern, expects to always have enough for a living, and tries to regain the paradise lost. How was Fromm able to cope with this attitude to life? To begin with many of his students saw him—the psychoanalyst who had emigrated from Germany and who had been working and teaching in the USA—as an >authoritarian< person. They found the very demand for a punctual start of the sessions and a limitation to a 50- minute duration unacceptable. As time went by, however, a fruitful interchange evolved: not only did the students learn from Fromm the psychoanalytic technique, but they were also deeply impressed by the personality behind it. On the other hand Fromm's comprehensive view of human beings and his humanitarian disposition could not be understood without the experience he gained during his long stay in Mexico. In this way >Mexican time< contributed to a large extent to the development of a >humanitarian psychoanalysis<.
>Mexikanische Zeit. Erich Fromm in Mexico<: Die Art, wie in Mexiko mit der Zeit umgegangen wird, unterscheidet sich beträchtlich von der westeuropäischen oder nordamerikanischen: Der Mexikaner >hat< oder >nimmt sich< mehr Zeit; die in der Ländern der protestantischen Arbeitsethik hochgeschätzte Tugend der Pünktlichkeit ist ihm fremd. In der >mexikanischen Zeit<, zu der viele Feste gehören, bekundet sich eine dem matrizentrischen Komplex zugehörige Art von Gesellschafts- Charakter. Man lebt unbekümmert in den Tag hinein, erwartet, dass immer genug zum Leben vorhanden ist, und sucht das verlorengegangene Paradies wiederzufinden. Wie kam Fromm mit dieser Art von Lebenseinstellung zurecht? Anfangs galt er – der aus Deutschland emigrierte Psychoanalytiker, der in den USA praktiziert und gelehrt hatte – bei vielen seiner Schüler als >autoritär<. Schon die Forderung nach pünktlichem Beginn und die Begrenzung der analytischen Sitzung auf 50 Minuten galten ihnen als unannehmbar. Mit der Zeit kam jedoch ein fruchtbarer Austausch zustande: Seine Schüler erlernten von Fromm nicht nur die psychoanalytische Technik, sondern sie waren auch zutiefst von der dahinterstehenden Persönlichkeit beeindruckt. Umgekehrt sind Fromms ganzheitliche Sicht des Menschen und seine biophile Grundhaltung nicht ohne die Erfahrungen, die er während seiner langjährigen Tätigkeit in Mexiko machte, zu verstehen. So trug die >mexikanische Zeit< viel zur Entwicklung der >humanistischen Psychoanalyse< bei.