Transitional Phenomena in an Age of Heightened Anxiety

Several of my colleagues have reported since the November election that they have had an unusual increase in referrals and patients. The owner of two massage salons with whom I spoke to recently said her business has increased substantially. A career counselor said that for weeks after the election, her clients spent entire hour-long appointments talking not about getting a job, but about their anger and sadness at the results. Friends have told me they were spending more time at home with their cats or dogs.

The election and the first months of the Trump administration have polarized Americans emotionally as well as politically. While clearly many people are feeling reassured by having Donald Trump in the White House, many others have said they feel anxious and have a diminished sense of well-being. In a survey released earlier this year by the American Psychological Association and conducted by Harris Poll, 57% of the participants said the current political climate is a very or somewhat significant source of stress for them, and nearly half said the outcome of the election was also a source of stress.

One can infer that the heightened anxiety of many people has them seeking out comfort from whatever sources are the most soothing for each person. This recalls to me that in the months after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, retailers were selling

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 more blankets and other items to make homes more comfortable. They wanted safe and familiar environments.

Looking at this from a psychoanalytic perspective, many people who are well into adulthood are returning consciously and unconsciously to the first year of life, when as babies they sought soft, comforting things like blankets and plush toys to ease the pain of separation from their mothers or caregivers. The uncertainty they feel reminds them of the now-repressed anxiety they felt from being left alone, perhaps when they were put into their cribs to sleep.

I’m speaking, of course, of the transitional objects that Donald Winnicott described in “Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena—A Study of the First Not-Me Possession” (International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 34, 1953, 89-97). Although Winnicott was writing about children as young as four months, he also recognized that “a need for a specific object or a behaviour pattern that started at a very early date may reappear at a later age when deprivation threatens” (91).

Many analytic authors have applied Winnicott’s theories to adults, including those that have obsessive compulsive disorder and who need to perform specific actions like counting steps or who may hoard all kinds of objects to alleviate their anxiety. However, in between babies and people struggling with debilitating emotional conditions, there are adults, perhaps all adults, who seek something comforting or familiar to ease their anxiety, whether it is the result of events in their own lives or something that is happening locally, nationally, or globally.

Winnicott used the expression “transitional phenomena” to include comforts that went beyond blankets and teddy bears. He cited “mouthing, accompanied by sounds of ‘mummum’, babbling, anal noises, the first musical notes and so on,” even thinking and fantasizing as examples of these phenomena. Adults have their own, individual and idiosyncratic transitional phenomena. I have had friends tell me that during difficult emotional times, they slept with the TV on. Many people, when they’re alone, want the TV, radio, or music playing; silence makes them feel alone and uncomfortable. Many watch a beloved movie that they’ve already seen dozens of times.

Certainly, people with well-loved animals feel immense comfort from the emotional connection with them, and if they are

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fur-bearing, their soft coats. After my husband died, I was very much soothed by the fact that our cat was there every night when I came home. She was also a comfort to me when I returned to my Manhattan apartment the evening of 9/11.

Transitional objects also come in the form of food. It’s no accident that we call foods like mashed potatoes, rice pudding, and macaroni and cheese “comfort foods.” They either have the texture of baby food or are the kind of foods that we scarfed down when we were little and were being fed and cared for by our mothers or other caregivers.

The outcome of the election sent millions of people marching, including the women’s marches on January 21 and the Tax Day marches on April 15. While marches are undertaken to express anger and other emotions, the feeling of being surrounded by other people is also an antidote to being alone and anxious. Reaching for the phone to call or text a friend is akin to the baby or child crying for a mother or caregiver. Families or friends congregating around a TV to watch news coverage of a tragedy aren’t just curious.

Many of the marchers wore pink knit hats known as pussy hats. While I understand that the word “pussy” as a synonym for “vagina” has taken on political connotations, the analyst in me cannot overlook the fact that pussies are also cats that are soft and can be very cuddly. The sound and sensation of purring is very calming and soothing, as is the feeling of a dog’s warm muzzle on your leg. The soft, handmade pussy hats were also like the tiny bits of wool or cloth that Winnicott saw babies touching and clutching to soothe themselves. As such, for many of the people who marched, these likely were transitional objects, a comfort amidst the uncertainty and fear they feel in this new political era.

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