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For
example,
A
girl from an arts stream speaks of a veil set up in
front of her.
-<<It is
as if there was a veil... which separates me from
what is there, if... 1 look into space, I don't
know, it's faraway... it has already given me this
impression... evidently, 1 don't think immediately
of maths, when I look at the stars; but there, I am
aware that it represents something similar, I don't
know. To look at something and then reach a time
when you can no longer see, close your eyelids,
there is the veil which prevents us from
penetrating any further, from reaching it... I
think it's that.>>
This
girl envisages a distance between herself and
mathematics like that between her and the
starts. What she wants is to be able to
"penetrate" further, but in practice, she bas
set up a veil, which as in the Temple,
separates the faithful from the Holy of
Holies. The underlying ambivalence in such
case was noted by Otto Fenichel:
<<Analysis
always reveals that specifically avoided situations
or inhibited functions have unconsciously an
instinctive, sexual or aggressive, meaning. It is
against this instinctive meaning that the defence
is really directed. That which is avoided refers,
either to a temptation to give in to the repressed
urge or to a feared punishment, or to both at the
same time. >>
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