The Unadjusted Girl, With Cases and Standpoint for Behavior AnalysisThomas, William Isaac
Science
The Unadjusted Girl, With Cases and Standpoint for Behavior Analysis
Thomas, William Isaac
Female juvenile delinquents -- Case studies; Young women
Do not think, dear editor, that I pride myself for having such a
feeling. No, I do not compliment myself at all. I am provoked with
myself, I am ashamed of myself and I hate myself. How can a person
be such a rag? I argue with myself, how can I permit my mind to have
no control over my heart? But my arguments with myself do me no good
at all. It is work thrown away. I can love no one except him, the
only one who has captured my heart and soul. I cannot even entertain
the thought of ceasing to love him. It is simply impossible.
By what name would you call such a person as I am, dear editor?
Perhaps I have gone out of my senses. So give me a word of advice as
to how I may become sane again. I neglect everything in the world.
Nothing remains in my thoughts except him. Without him everything is
dark.
He is also unhappy on account of me. I don’t let him breathe freely.
He might have been happy with another, but I give him no chance. I
disturb his life. I will add that this condition has gone on now for
several years and there is no prospect of its ending.
Dear editor, give me an advice before I commit a deed after which
marriage is impossible. I wait for your wise advice. Perhaps you
will be my savior.[15]
The varieties of love in women are greater than in men, for we are to
include here not only physical passion but parental feeling—that fund of
emotion which is fixed on the child. The capacity of response to the
child, mother love, is notorious and is painfully evident in document
11, p. 18, where the mother has no thought left for anything but the
child. The mother is one who does not refuse. She does not refuse the
breast to the lusty child even when she is herself ailing. And while
this feeling is developed as a quality of motherhood it is present
before motherhood and is capable of being transferred to any object
calling for sympathy,—a doll, a man, or a cause. The women of the Malay
Peninsula suckle little wild pigs when these are found motherless.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account