On the Edge of the World: Trauma and Twinship Selfobject Needs in Mrs. Dalloway

Alienation and aloneness appear as common themes in the experience of those impacted by trauma. Self psychology theorists, including contemporary proponents of intersubjectivity theory, have also discussed the ways in which alienation and disconnection from others permeate the experience of post-traumatic stress disorder. This discussion has highlighted the importance and centrality of twinship selfobject needs in providing a relational home for the emotional pain associated with trauma. These phenomena are especially apparent when one encounters the experiences of those combat veterans who have attempted to readjust to society upon returning home from military service. Using self psychology and intersubjectivity theory, this paper explores the ways that fiction, specifically Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, can illuminate the ways that trauma negatively impacts twinship selfobject needs in combat veterans. In examining the character of Septimus Smith, this paper illustrates the estrangement, singularity, and alienation associated with post-traumatic stress, and how this state of being can collude with societal misunderstanding and repression to shatter the self's sense of belongingness with and connection to others.

Note from William Croswell to Mrs. Crocker, [1795] July 30

Note regarding the return of Mrs. Crocker's books.

Letter from William Croswell regarding Mrs. Collins, 1818 February 19

Draft of a one-page letter to an unidentified recipient regarding payment to Mrs. Collins for washing.

Letters to Mrs. Bowker, 1828 August 9

Copy of a letter related to the settlement of debt with Bowker's father.

Letter from William Croswell to Mrs. Bowker, 1831 May 16

Two handwritten drafts of a letter from William Croswell to Mrs. Bowker related to debts and Bowker's father.

Diary entries (fragment), 1815 September

One leaf containing a fragment of a description of an incident between Croswell and neighborhood boys.

Payment order for Nathanael Gardner on behalf of his son, 1737 July 1

Handwritten order to John Sale to pay scholarship funds to Nathanael Gardner on behalf of his son Nathaniel Gardner (Harvard AB 1739), signed by Thomas Foxcroft, Charles Chauncey, Samuel Marshall, Thomas Waite, and Cornelius Thayer.

Quarter bill book for the Classes of 1798-1815, 1798-1812

Leather hardcover bound volume containing quarter bill tallies for the Classes of 1798-1815 arranged alphabetically and beginning with the bill period ending on February 22, 1798 through the period ending April 2, 1812. After each quarter's tallies, an additional section lists students delinquent in payment, and provides the totals for all students in each of the categories.

[Admittatur of Timothy Prout (Harvard AB 1741)], 1737

Notebook with a handwritten copy of the 1734 College laws copied in English by Harvard undergraduate Timothy Prout and signed by President Edward Holyoke, Fellows Henry Flynt and Nathan Prince, and Tutors Stephen Sewall and Daniel Rogers on October 5, 1737. The flyleaf includes the note, "This Body of Colledge Laws was transcribed by Timo. Prout July ye 10th anno Domini 1737.

[Admittatur of Jonathan Townsend (Harvard AB 1741)], 1737

Notebook, in modern hardcover binding, with a handwritten copy of the 1734 College laws in English prepared by Harvard undergraduate Jonathan Townsend and signed by President Edward Holyoke and Fellow Nathan Prince on October 6, 1737.

Mrs. Kadiato Kamara: an expert dyer in Sierra Leone / Loretta Reinhardt, Assistant Professor, Erindale College, University of Toronto --

v.66:no.2(1976)