Portnoy's Attachment Theory

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From having a knife pulled on you by your own mother to thinking about killing your own father, you sure had an unique childhood. I would like to categorize your relationship with your parents as “disorganized attachment… [where] the child is caught in a terrible dilemma: her survival instincts are telling her to flee to safety but safety is the very person who is terrifying her.” (Attachment Theory Worksheet) First off, I would like to talk how your mother pulling a knife at you signified a mixed message and led to the demise of your future love life. As a genius of your caliber, you were confused why she would pull a knife on you for not eating vegetables, when earlier before, she was praising your accomplishments! Such two-facedness would set a precedence for the type of women you would date later in life, preferring the ones that do not remind you of your mother. …show more content…

You said, “the resemblance between this girl [Naomi] and the picture of my mother in her high school yearbook … Because she wore red hair and freckles, this makes her, according to my unconscious one-track mind, my mother?” (Portnoy’s Complaint, 259-266) You are drawn to her all her good charms, comparing her to the “Jewish Pumpkin” (258) and even had the audacity to say, “I want to marry you.” (263). This sudden spurt of impulsiveness could be explained by a Rejection Theory. “Perhaps the best integration is to suggest that rejected people want to be accepted but also want to avoid being rejected again.” (Attraction and Rejection, 437) Conquering Naomi, in terms of marriage or intercourse, is a way for you to make amends of what happen with you and your mother during your

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