Ellen and Her Mother 埃伦和她的母亲 Ellen's history since the time of her father's death is one of recurrent hospitalizations, all of which seemed to follow a fairly typical pattern. She would create a scene, become abusive and assaultive, and would then be sent to the hospital. Once in the hospital, she would escape within a few days and return directly home. Usually the precipitant for her admission would be some form of disappointment or loss. On one occasion, her next younger brother got married. This was a disappointment to Ellen because she had been closer to him than to any of the other siblings. He had occasionally taken her along to parties with his friends and generally got along fairly well with her. His leaving home and getting married was a significant loss to Ellen. More often than not, however, the precipitating event for hospitalization had to do with something that would happen between Ellen and her mother. After an argument, for example, Ellen would set about making a scene. One of her favorite ways of making a scene was to go to one of the family's taverns and demand money from the barkeeper to pay for cab fare and something to eat. If the bartender didn't give her the money she would raise a terrible ruckus. The family was advised by Ellen's therapist not to cater to these whims of hers and the older brother asked the bartenders not to give her the money.The bartenders replied that they would rather quit their jobs than have to put up with the kind of disturbances that Ellen could kick up. 自父亲去世后，埃伦的病史一直是反复住院治疗，所有这些似乎都遵循着一个相当典型的模式。她会制造一个场景，变得虐待和攻击，然后被送往医院。一旦进了医院，她会在几天内逃跑并直接回家。通常情况下，她入院的诱因是某种形式的失望或损失。有一次，她的第二个弟弟结婚了。这使爱伦很失望，因为她跟他比跟其他兄弟姐妹都要亲。他偶尔带她一起去参加和朋友们的聚会，总的来说和她相处得很好。他离家结婚对埃伦来说是一个重大的损失。然而，住院治疗的紧急事件往往与爱伦和她母亲之间将要发生的事情有关。例如，在一次争吵之后，埃伦就开始大吵大闹。她最喜欢大吵大闹的方法之一就是去她家的一家酒馆，向酒吧老板要钱付车费和吃的东西。如果酒保不给她钱，她会引起一场可怕的骚动。埃伦的治疗师建议她的家人不要迎合她的这些怪念头，而她的哥哥也要求酒吧招待不要给她钱。调酒师们回答说，他们宁愿辞掉工作，也不愿忍受埃伦可能挑起的那种骚乱。 When Ellen returned home from her visits to the hospital, she would be quiet and restrained for several days, but then the situation would heat up and the chronic conflict and arguments with her mother would begin again. The quality of Ellen's interaction with her mother was central in understanding her pathology. The relationship was one of intense hostility and mutual dependence. They could not live with each other and they would not live without each other. Ellen's attitude toward her mother was one of constant criticism and sarcasm. Her sarcasm was particularly directed toward her mother's social pretensions—obviously one of the mother's points of vulnerability. She would also criticize her mother's housekeeping—another susceptible point. Her behavior was often demanding and provocative. When things did not go her way or she did not get what she wanted, she would fly into a rage and shout obscenities at her mother, and at times even attack her physically. Some of this behavior was tempered when there were other siblings around the house, but after the marriage of her youngest brother, Ellen and her mother were left together. 当埃伦从医院回来的时候，她会安静克制好几天，但随后情况会变得更加严重，她和母亲之间的长期冲突和争吵又会重新开始。埃伦与母亲互动的质量是理解她的病理的核心。这种关系是一种强烈的敌对和相互依赖的关系。他们不能和彼此生活在一起，也不能没有彼此而生活。埃伦对母亲的态度是不断地批评和挖苦。她的讽刺特别针对她母亲在社会地位上的自命不凡——这显然是她母亲的弱点之一。她还会批评她母亲的家务活——这是另一个过敏的地方。她的行为经常是苛求和挑衅的。当事情没有按照她的意愿发展，或者她没有得到她想要的东西时，她就会勃然大怒，对她的母亲大骂，有时甚至用身体攻击她。当家里有其他兄弟姐妹时，这种行为会有所缓和，但在她最小的弟弟结婚后，埃伦和她的母亲被留在了一起。 For the mother's part, she played the long-suffering and self-sacrificing martyr's role. Her treatment of Ellen, however, was essentially viciously undercutting. She would take every opportunity to make Ellen feel inadequate and inferior—reminding her of her inability to hold a job, or to get along with anyone, of not having any friends, particularly boyfriends, or being crippled and sick and inadequate. In indirect and insinuating ways, she would play on Ellen's guilt. She would make Ellen feel that she was responsible for her mother's depression and for her cardiac condition. She would even imply at times that Ellen was responsible for her father's death. Her mother often referred to her as "the crippled bird who can't leave the nest"——and the intonations of this expression as it came from the mother's lips were those of accusation, of a reminder to Ellen that she was sick and inadequate, of a hidden wish to make and keep Ellen the crippled bird. One had the sense that this mother almost took satisfaction from thinking of and having Ellen as her crippled bird. 作为母亲，她扮演了一个长期受苦和自我牺牲的殉道者的角色。然而，她对埃伦的态度本质上是恶意中伤。她会抓住每一个机会使爱伦感到自己的不足和低人一等——提醒她自己不能胜任工作，不能与任何人和睦相处，没有朋友，尤其是男朋友，或者身体残疾，身体有病，不能胜任工作。她会以间接的、影射的方式利用埃伦的内疚。她会让埃伦觉得她要为她母亲的抑郁和她的心脏状况负责。她有时甚至暗示，埃伦要为她父亲的死负责。她母亲经常把她称为“一只断了翅的鸟，就是不能离开鸟巢。”——这个表述从母亲嘴唇里说出来时的语气,其实就是指控,也是提醒，提醒埃伦,她有病，她不足,还是一个隐藏的希望,希望埃伦永远是断了翅膀的鸟。人们可以感觉到，这位母亲几乎从把埃伦当成她那只断翅的鸟来对待中得到了满足。