Body parts, ego fragments
Thurs 10th Nov

Yesterday's issue of facilities for the under fives gave me some cause for concern. The talk was of child development in social and cognitive areas, no mention was made of emotional development. If you've read chapter 10, you'll know that I view childcare as part of the male agenda, unconscious, to separate mothers and infants. In the first year of life, and to a slightly lesser extent in the next two, it has damaging effects. It reduces ego strength, or to put it another way, produces an increased liability towards ego fragmentation. Listening to Today, 10th November, and more suicide bombings put me in mind of such fragmentation because this is exactly what is projected onto others by such actions. Listening to newscasters talking of body parts, which is something on British news I think, I suddenly recognised how this would click onto the inner template of the severely schizoid fragmented individual strengthening its power and increasing the likelihood of its being acted out. The media is quite used to talking of copycat crimes, has it grasped the issue of copycat suicide bombing in relation to its own style of reporting? (I'm talking here of course of the hominin psyche and impressed behaviours) And of course the showing of actual body parts on the news in the Middle East for example would have an even more powerful effect. Rough handling by a stressed mother can give a small baby the feeling of being torn apart, but a succession of experiences of being "torn away from" mother could have a cumulatively similar effect.