The Negative Oral Fixation

History:

The waist at the base phalanx of the little finger exposes the Negative Oral Fixation.

We would expect, as a rule, that the neonate’s entrance into the world external to the womb would immediately be met with delivery into the warm waiting arms of the mother.  At this time a bonding is effected with the mother who serves as the marvelous purveyor and receptor of all its intense libidinal needs and drives.  There would be other equally marvelous derivatives of this experience. The neonate still does not recognize the mother as an object external to itself, but it knows the total security of being totally contained, as it were. It is essentially an extension of a body greater than itself.  It becomes an inherent part of the warmth that rises from the mother’s body, the movement of her body, the sound of her voice, her touching, her embraces, and all else that defines its original mother experience. When it needs feeding it is fed, if cold it is coddled in blankets, and when tired it is rocked to sleep.

What we are describing are the neonate’s and the infant’s idyllic experiences. These come at a time when they are utterly dependent for their physical and emotional well-being on the mother. The experiences recorded, which will remain throughout their lives as the most fundamental references to themselves, link the degree to which their emotional and physical well-being and their most critical security needs are in the parcel of their dependency upon others. This in no way precludes their eventual advancement to levels of autonomy and independence as a response to other psychical chemistries, but it does underline a knowledge of being inherently secure along with a preparedness to trust and depend confidently upon others if necessary.

The Negative Oral Fixation overtakes the very earliest references any individual would have to himself, or herself when that same person, as an infant, experienced distress of any order.  In the past it appeared frequently in the hands of those who at birth were removed to incuba-tors.  This is somewhat mitigated today when the mothers are encouraged to massage and otherwise effect a gentle physical handling of the infant. But if the very young infant suffers, say, severe and extended pains in its digestive system, or musculature or bone development, the experience that becomes ingrained in its mind as a first reference it itself may be in perfect contradiction to what had hitherto been described.

We may also imagine the trying circumstances of a very young infant, totally in need of an accommodating mother, when that mother herself suffers severe emotional distress. She may well be prevented from attending to her infant’s needs. Depression or heightened anxieties are frequently encountered in such instances. Consider as well that for some mothers whose own early infantile needs were never met, but who, as adults, persist in striving to have them satisfied, the practice of satisfying such needs in their own infants can become seriously compromised.

These infants, as adults, would have no conscious recollection of their earliest traumatic difficulties. Nevertheless, as submerged as these references to themselves may be in their earliest pre-conscious memories, those experiences remain as indelible references to their own lives throughout the course of their lives. What then evolves among the reflexive responses to real life circumstances is this: these people find themselves prevented from depending on anybody for anything. Nothing is forgotten. Dependencies bring to the fore the fear of experiencing anew their state of frightful impotence. At a time when they were helpless, entirely vulnerable, and utterly dependent upon others for their wellbeing their circumstances were the most painful and impossibly frightening

Bringing a mirror to this history, the determined striving for controls along with the abhorrence of dependencies upon others would be a singular characteristic of anyone having this shape describe the base phalanx of his, or her, little finger. Furthermore it would resist all efforts at therapeutic intervention. The best ambition of the therapist would be bring its manifest expressions to accommodate an immediate conscious awareness of its detrimental personal and inter-personal effects. This awareness might then be moved to enlist the need for the same controls to promote modifications.