Wow. This woman missed her husband so much after he was deployed that she actually purchased a manequin off of Ebay so that she could keep it around to constantly remind her of him. An excerpt...
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COSBY: Now, where does he sleep? We saw some pictures. I see you're holding hands with him. Looks like a very romantic moment here. ... Where does he stay? I saw some pictures of him sleeping in the bed with you. Do you bring him with you, spend time with him everywhere?
WALKER: No. I do spend a lot of time with him, just like it is my husband, because it reminds me of him, but he sleeps on the couch. I live alone, so I want people to think that I'm here. But I only slept with him one night.
--------------------------------------------------One word for ya..... WOW!
Hope I am never that lonely. :)
Thanks to Melvin for pointing out the article which can be read here.
2 comments:
yeah, WOW definitely sums this up. This lady is crazy. You should check out the video too. They show her eating at a restaurant, at a theater, buckling him up in the car...it's just crazy. Her husband didn't find out until some of his friends saw it in the paper. I bet he files for divorce when he gets back.
I can see the article now.
When asked for the reason for his divorce the husband stated - "The bitch is crazy! I mean, she slept in the bed with a manequin!"
Yeah...that just begs the question of how hard-up one has to be to do something like that. Here's the transcipt from the conversation with the therapist afterward....
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BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: Well, here's my reaction: I think that the loss of her husband going overseas felt catastrophic for her and that she confused temporary separation with a permanent loss. And I would imagine, if you look back over her life, that perhaps there was another loss or series of losses that was traumatic for her.
So what she did was she found a love substitute, OK? And she has found a love substitute that's in her husband's likeness, and she invests all of her love energy in the love substitute.
And the interesting thing about this love substitute is that it won't hurt her as she has felt hurt by her husband with him going, you know, overseas. It's interesting because, in my mind, this is very regressed child-like behavior with very small kids when they go off to school for the first time. They can't handle being separate from their mommies. So usually the parents sends a memento, a picture in the likeness of the parents, right?
COSBY: So, Bethany, are you suggesting that she ditch the mannequin, that she ditch B.D.?
MARSHALL: She may not be able to. I mean, if this is her coping mechanism, it may be useful. What concerns me is that I saw her on another show earlier today where her husband came in over a phone line and she seemed quite confused and unsure how to relate to him, that she was more related to and interested in the mannequin than her husband. And this is what I see in clinical practice when people find love substitutes...
COSBY: Oh, that's interesting. Do you think, Bethany, that she's going to have a problem when her husband actually gets back?
MARSHALL: Yes, I do. I think what's going to happen is she's going to have a period where she has a very difficult time attaching to him. She's going to have stranger anxiety, like little kids have.
And eventually, she'll warm back up to him and then she'll reattach, but she needs to work on issues of separation and loss because, you know, one of the tasks of adulthood is that we learn to be separate from the ones we love and hold onto the idea of being loved, even when separated from loved ones.
COSBY: So, Bethany, what do you suggest for her now?
MARSHALL: Well, I think she's doing a really good thing in that her neighbor goes with her and they take the mannequin shopping. It would be nice if she ditched the love substitute at some point and then attach to neighbors and family and friends.
The reason I think she needs the love substitute is she feels, as I said earlier, traumatized by what she perceives to be a catastrophic loss with her husband going overseas, so human relationships feel scary and frightening. Why a mannequin...
COSBY: You know, Bethany, what do you suggest to folks, who are going through, on a serious note, too, because, there are so many... I just came back from Afghanistan.
MARSHALL: Yes.
COSBY: And you see so many of these young men and women away from their loved ones, especially as we go into the holiday season. What do you say? What advice do you give to folks who are going through some of that separation anxiety?
MARSHALL: I think that they have to remember that they're loved even when outside the presence of the one who loves them. They have to hold onto the idea of being loved.
And they need to pick substitutes that point towards the real relationship. Put a picture on the refrigerator of your husband, OK? Maybe wear a favorite t-shirt of his to bed. Spend time with his family.
Do something that's more oriented to the real relationship.
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