title: I can't play ball anymore.
abstract: The case material from the treatments of four older individuals suffering from late-life depressions reveal that their conditions were precipitated by the presence of physical problems that led to an interference with long-standing athletic skills. Since the skills in question had developed in the context of a tie with an important early object, the loss of the athletic function led to a double loss, that of the object tie as well. In addition, it was seen that the tie with the original object also served as a protection for patients against the specter of the imminence of their own deaths. The loss of this protective function intensified feelings of castration and of vulnerability to death.
authors.affiliation: Cornell University Medical Center, New York, N.Y.
authors.forename: W A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Myers
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001484:Baseball; D003704:Dementia / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D010809:Physical Fitness; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D012803:Sick Role; D013177:Sports