3V0508.01 Over the head: what it means to Peggy (6/14/79)

Putting cloth objects especially (but others as well) over the top of the
head and down about her neck has become one of Peggy’s favorite
activities. This leapt to prominence in our eyes with her wandering
from the living room into the kitchen with a pair of Robby’s jockey
shorts around her neck, her head through the waist and one leg. She
was delighted with her success and kept repeating the action — just
with the shorts and in subsequent days with any piece of clothing she
could pull from her dresser drawers. Latterly (7/1 say) Peggy has
concentrated on putting a small found necklace of Miriam’s over her
head with the same satisfaction.

Relevance — this activity appears to capture what ‘over the head’ means
to Peggy — i.e. to her, clothing is that class of cloth things that goes
over the head. She has been dressed by others so long, that this new
success must be to her an extension of her control of her world that is
significant from her point of view of what life is about (imagine trying
to imagine the existential philosophy of an infant!)

Print Friendly, PDF & Email