I can't play ball anymore.

Abstract

The case material from the treatments of four older individuals suffering from late-life depressions reveal that their conditions were precipitated by the presence of physical problems that led to an interference with long-standing athletic skills. Since the skills in question had developed in the context of a tie with an important early object, the loss of the athletic function led to a double loss, that of the object tie as well. In addition, it was seen that the tie with the original object also served as a protection for patients against the specter of the imminence of their own deaths. The loss of this protective function intensified feelings of castration and of vulnerability to death.