Maternal assimilation and the capacity to be alone

This study examined empirically the relationship between maternal assimilation—the degree to which characteristics of the mother are internalized and experienced as qualities of oneself—and the capacity to be alone (Winnicott, 1958) in women. Maternal assimilation was operationalized using the Leary Interpersonal System, which allows for assessment of the degree to which Interpersonal Check List descriptions of the mother are congruent with a measure of underlying character structure. The capacity to be alone was assessed via ratings of subjects' responses to selected cards from the Object Relations Technique (Phillipson, 1955), a picture-story projective test based upon psychoanalytic object relations theory. The Capacity for Aloneness Scale (CAS) was developed to rate subjects' CRT stories. Results indicated strong support for the hypothesis that the assimilation of a nurturant and responsive mother would predispose to developmentally-advanced and potentially creative experiences of aloneness (classified as Manic and Depressive on the CAS), whereas the failure of maternal assimilation would be associated with paranoid and schizoid experiences of aloneness. Seventy-nine percent (79%) of subjects who had failed to achieve maternal assimilation produced CRT stories classified as Paranoid-Schizoid on the Capacity for Aloneness Scale. For those subjects who had achieved maternal assimilation, there was a strong correlation (r = .65, p < .01) between the degree to which the mother was described as friendly versus hostile, and CAS scores indicating more secure and productive experiences of aloneness. Results are discussed in light of Winnicottian theory.