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THE MAN OF COLOR AND THE WHITE WOMAN 53

aggression to which it gives rise, and the devaluation of self that
fl ows out of it—that supports the whole symptomatology of this
neurosis.” 15
We made an introvert of Jean Veneuse. We know character-
ologically—or, better, phenomenologically—that autistic thinking
can be made dependent on a primary introversion. 16
In a patient of the negative-aggressive type, obsession with the past and
with its frustrations, its gaps, its defeats, paralyzes his enthusiasm for
living. Generally more introverted than the positive-loving type, he has a
tendency to go back over his past and present disappointments, building
up in himself a more or less secret area of bitter, disillusioned resentments
that often amounts to a kind of autism. But, unlike the genuine autistic
person, the abandonment-neurotic is aware of this secret zone, which he
cultivates and defends against every intrusion. More egocentric than the
neurotic of the second type (positive-loving), he views everything in terms
of himself. He has little capacity for disinterestedness: His aggressions
and a constant need for vengeance inhibit his impulses. His retreat into
himself does not allow him to have any positive experience that would
compensate for his past. Hence the lack of self-esteem and therefore of
affective security is virtually total in such cases; and as a result there is
an overwhelming feeling of impotence in relation to life and to people, as
well as a complete rejection of the feeling of responsibility. Others have
betrayed him and thwarted him, and yet it is only from these others that
he expects any improvement in his lot. 17
A magnifi cent description, into which the character of Jean
Veneuse fits perfectly. For, he tells us, “arriving at maturity
and going off to serve my adopted country in the land of my
ancestors was enough to make me wonder whether I was not
18
being betrayed by everything about me, for the white race would
not accept me as one of its own and the black virtually repudiated
me. That is precisely my position.” 19

15. G. Guex, La Névrose d’abandon (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1950),
p. 13.
16. E. Minkowski, La Schizophrénie (Paris, Payot, 1927).
17. Guex, op. cit., pp. 27–28.
18. My italics—F.F.
19. Maran, op. cit., p. 36.

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