The Darling | The As If Personality and Chekov's The Darling
In the following essay, Sperber considers Olenka as an ‘‘as if’’ personality, one with ‘‘a defective ability to invest emotional interest in others.''
Helene Deutsch, in 1942, called attention to a form of emotional disturbance in which the ‘‘individual’s whole relationship to life has something about it which is lacking in genuineness and yet outwardly runs along ‘as if’ it were complete.’’ Those with this condition were designated ‘‘as if’’ personalities. Since Deutsch’s paper, the condition has been described by others, and Ross has reviewed the literature concerning the concept, and discussed certain of its theoretical implications.
These ‘‘as if’’ individuals exhibit a defective...
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