The Windmills of Your Mind
Among the over one hundred renditions of The Windmills of Your Mind, I find myself returning to Barbara Lewis' rendition with Katja Ebstein's German rendition a close second. It's a tribute to the inner workings of the mind. In tribute to the song, a few windmills -
In the mind of the infant up to the age 18 months, it's theorized that the image he has of himself and his mother is like a full circle as if the two were one. (Object Relations theory)
From 18 to 36 months, two circles appear, one for self and the other for (m)other. The circles themselves split leaving a "good" part self linked to a "rewarding/satisfying" part other; and a "bad" part self linked to a 'withdrawing/rejecting" part other. (James F Masterson)
At 36 months, the two split self parts come together and the two split other parts come together leading to "whole object relations" where self and other are viewed in a balanced way. ("psychological birth of the self")
If the above three stages experience an arrest of development, the infant may become "masochistically" attached to the image of "bad" mother where pain and guilt become "libidinalized." (psychic masochism)
If this occurs, the child may grow up and adopt "pseudo aggressive" and self defeating patterns as payment or a "bribe" to the unconscious conscious (superego) for the attachment. ("... [to one degree or another] people forge their unconscious happiness out of conscious misery, and are aware of the misery alone." Bergler)
One of the motives behind pseudo aggression is to preserve, to one degree or another, in traditional jargon, "infantile megalomania."
One theory on the root of narcissism stems from the idea that while in the womb and during the first 18 months of life in the "extended womb," the child has the impression that everything revolves around him and that he has magic powers.
The trauma of arrested development may lead to unconscious repetition compulsion in reverse which combined with unresolved infantile megalomania lead to "negative magic gestures" - doing to others to communicate what had happened to you. (Berler)
One of the most challenging windmills/tunnels/caverns of the mind is "negative therapeutic reaction" which Masterson describes as "self activation leads to 'abandonment depression' leads to defense." It's when doing something from the real self triggers the "bad object" which then leads to the use of a defense mechanism in order to avoid past memories.
Over 200 defense mechanisms have been identified including projection, projective identification, reaction formation, "injustice collecting"and logical fallacies.
Healing aspects may include "mirroring interpretations of narcissistic vulnerability" (Masterson), naming defense mechanisms and logical fallacies, grief work and shadow work (withdrawing projections) and self re-parenting.
If secondary schools would like to introduce their students to some of the windmills of inner life, the "mental hygiene" movement from the 1950s to 1970s offers several short educational films (under 15 minutes). A few of them for consideration:
Age 13 1955
Jealousy 1954
Who's Right 1954
Facing Reality 1954
Preface to a Life 1950
Self Conscious Guy 1951
Roots of Happiness 1953
The Self Image Film 1976
Emotional Maturity 1958
Choosing Happiness 1950
Understanding Others 1958
The Feeling of Rejection 1947
The Brotherhood of Man 1946
Marriage is a Partnership 1951
Toward Emotional Maturity 1954
Discipline During Adolescence 1958
Maintaining Classroom Discipline 1947
Act Your Age (Emotional Maturity) 1949
Common Fallacies about Group Difference 1957
The message (and moral) of the song is on the deep need to mourn losses.
