Psychoanalyst Mara Sidoli was famous for her willingness to deal with difficult cases. She took on a severely disturbed ‘latency boy’ called Peter who frankly didn’t smell too good. According to Sidoli (1996), ‘Peter held loud conversations with imaginary beings and made loud anal farts as well as farting noises with his mouth whenever he became anxious or angry.’ He also tended to soil himself when anxious.
Sidoli describes this behaviour in terms of Freud’s defence mechanisms and suggested he was testing his parents’ commitment to him. After a year of therapy that seemed to be having little effect, Sidoli took the nuclear option and started to make farting noises herself. This so surprised Peter that it finally broke through the defences and he was able to express his dread, affection and humour about his parents in a less noxious way.
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