Abstract
This chapter seeks to re-tell the story of an orphaned and abused little girl named Pollyanna. Historical context for understanding the experiences of orphaned children in modern times is provided. Psychoanalytic theories of disassociation, false self, introjection, and denial are reviewed to consider how traumatized children manage their inner lives in the face of adults or society, who minimize or attack their genuine emotional reactions. The insistence on Pollyanna-like “glad games,” which occur at the expense of recognizing and valuing the full spectrum of human emotions, is examined through a cultural psychoanalytic lense. Connections are made between the internal capacity to experience emotions and the capacity to develop democratic and social-justice-oriented relationships to others and society.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ahmed, S. (2010a). Killing joy: Feminism and the history of happiness. Signs, 35(3), 571–594. https://doi.org/10.1086/648513.
Ahmed, S. (2010b). The promise of happiness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Anzaldua, G. (1987). Borderlands: La Frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Publications.
Bollas, C. (2018). Meaning and melancholia: Life in the age of bewilderment. New York: Routledge.
Bouchard, T. J. (1996). Galton lecture: Behaviour genetic studies of intelligence, yesterday and today: The long journey from plausibility to proof. Journal of Biosocial Science, 28(4), 527–555.
Bowlby, J. (1983). Attachment: Attachment and loss. New York, NY: Basic Books Classics.
Cates, J. A. (1991). Residential treatment in the 1980s: Characteristics of children served. Residential Treatment for Children & Youth, 9(1), 75–84.
Darwin, C. (1889). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. London: Murray.
Fairbairn, W. R. D. (1963). Synopsis of an object-relations theory of personality. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 44, 224–250.
Fanon, F. (1959/2008). Black skin, white masks. San Francisco, CA: Grove Press.
Ferenczi, S. (1949). Confusion of the tongues between the adults and the child. The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 30, 225–230.
Freud, S. (1908/1953). Creative writers and day-dreaming.In The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Translation from the German by J. Strachey, A. Freud, & A. Richards, Vol. 9). London, UK: Hogarth Press.
Freud, S. (1917). Mourning and melancholia. In The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud, volume XIV (1914–1916): On the history of the psycho-analytic movement, papers on metapsychology and other works (A. Strachey & A. Tyson, Trans., pp. 237–258). London, UK: Hogarth Press.
Fromm, E. (1941). Escape from freedom. Oxford, UK: Farrar & Rinehart.
Fromm, E. (1955). The sane society. Oxford, UK: Rinehart & Co.
Goddard, H. H. (1912). The Kallikak family: A study in the heredity of feeble-mindedness. New York: Macmillan.
Holt, M. I. (2001). Indian orphanages. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
Hook, D. (2012). A critical psychology of the postcolonial: The mind of apartheid. New York: Routledge.
Horney, K. (1936). Culture and neurosis. American Sociological Review, 1(2), 221–230.
Horney, K. (1937). The neurotic personality of our time. New York: W. W. Norton.
Horney, K. (1967). Feminine psychology. New York, NY: Springer.
Keith, L. (2001). Take up thy bed and walk: Death, disability and cure in classic fiction for girls. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Klein, M. (1946). Notes on some schizoid mechanisms. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 27, 99–110.
Levy-Warren, M. H. (1994). Child’s play amidst chaos. American Imago, 51(3), 359–368.
Lorde, A. (1981/2007). Sister outsider: Essays & speeches. Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press.
Mahler, M. S., Pine, F., & Bergman, A. (1973). The psychological birth of the human infant. New York: Basic Books.
Marx, K. (1843/1970). Introduction to a contribution to the critique of Hegel’s philosophy of right. Collected works (J. O’Malley, Ed., A. Jolin & J. O’Malley, Trans., Vol. 3). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved on January 14, 2019 at https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm.
Merskin, D. L. (2011). Media, minorities, and meaning: A critical introduction. Philadelphia, PA: Peter Lang.
Morton, M. J. (2000). Surviving the great depression: Orphanages and orphans in Cleveland. Journal of Urban History, 26(4), 438–455.
Ogden, T. H. (2010). Why read fairbairn? The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 91(1), 101–118.
Ogden, T. H. (2016). Reclaiming unlived life: Experiences in psychoanalysis. New York, NY: Routledge.
Popenoe, P., & Johnson, R. H. (1935). Applied eugenics (2nd ed.). New York: Macmillan.
Porter, E. (1913). Pollyanna. Boston, MA: Colonial Press.
Selden, S. (1999). Inheriting shame: The story of eugenics and racism in America. New York: Teachers College Press.
Shane, P. G. (1996). What about America’s homeless children? Hide and seek. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Shealy, C. N. (1995). From boys town to oliver twist: Separating fact from fiction in welfare reform and out-of-home placement of children and youth. American Psychologist, 50(8), 565–570.
Sherr, L., Roberts, K. J., & Gandhi, N. (2017). Child violence experiences in institutionalised/orphanage care. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 22(Suppl. 1), 31–57.
Smith, J. D. (1985). Minds made feeble: The myth and legacy of the Kallikaks. Rockville, MD: Aspen.
Smith, W. B. (2011). Youth leaving foster care: A developmental, relationship-based approach to practice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Terman, L. M. (1916). The measurement of intelligence. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Tjaden, P. G., & Thoennes, N. (1992). Predictors of legal intervention in child maltreatment cases. Child Abuse and Neglect, 16(6), 807–821.
Tucker, W. H. (1996). The science and politics of racial research. Carbondale: University of Illinois Press.
Watson, J. B. (1914). Behavior: An introduction to comparative psychology. New York, NY: H. Holt.
Watson, J. B. (1919). Psychology: From the standpoint of a behaviorist. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott.
Watson, J. B. (1928). Psychological care of infant and child. New York: W. W. Norton.
Watson, J. B. (1930). Behaviorism (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
White, K. P. (2002). Surviving hating and being hated: Some personal thoughts about racism from a psychoanalytic perspective. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 38, 401–422. https://doi.org/10.1080/00107530.2002.10747173.
Winnicott, D. W. (1960). The theory of the parent-infant relationship. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 41, 585–595.
Winnicott, D. W. (1965). The maturational process and the facilitating environment. London, UK: Penguin Books.
Winnicott, D. W. (1967). Playing and reality. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books.
Zenderland, L. (2001). Measuring minds: Henry Herbert Goddard and the origins of American intelligence testing. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Zinn, H. (2010). The twentieth century: A people’s history. New York: Harper & Row.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Yakushko, O. (2019). Re-telling the Story of Orphaned Girl Named Pollyanna. In: Scientific Pollyannaism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15982-5_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15982-5_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-15981-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-15982-5
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)