She said increasingly aware of "a fragility, an she was becoming insubstantiality underlying my surface confidence." She wondered whether the fact that she had been sexually molested by a family friend at the age of three or four was not the source of her presenting problem . She added that in situations in which she felt vulnerable she would adopt an attitude of superiority, "a brittle dogmatic confidence" that she was increasingly coming to recognize as a front. She was very sensitive to criticism and did not deal with i t well because criticism made her painfully aware of her underlying fragility. Her usual response to criticism was either to lash out or withdraw resen tf ully from the encounter. It was particularly confrontational situations that alerted her to this

An innocuous c omment by an acquaintance on her rather spartan living conditions (she had very few material posessions and liked to feel that she could pack everything she owned in her leave at a moment's notice) had an unusually strong car and impact on her. Her spartan life-style suddenly felt like a "failure" on her part f or which she felt guilty. She wasn't sure I I r 83. what her guilt was about but felt that it had something to do with a vague feeling of "having in some way failed myself." Another aspect of her presenting problem was that "I seem to be perennially sarcastic in response to surface compliments. Compliments about external appearences are not important, I need to have compliments about my self." As can be seen from the above her presenting problem was rather vague and shadowy. She did not feel depressed or anxious and did not exhibit any of the usual neurotic symptomatic indicators.

5.4 Personality "How much to my question of how she sees herself. "I'm a funny mixture of the gregarious and the solitary. I enjoy my own company because it places no demands on me. Others think me eccentric. I don't fit in with going trends, I don't run with th~ pack." She was very outdoors-oriented and said she was happiest when she was out alone in the bush. She would frequently grab some camping jump on her motorcycle and just take off at a moment's gear, the veld. notice for anywhere, hiking and sleeping alone tilne do I have?", she laughed in response

s lack of stimulation, she would drive miles out of town at night and, after parking her car in a deserted spot, turn up the volume of her car sound system and dance alone outside her car. She claimed to be " excited by little things new leaves, rays of sunshine." She said she had "a very dry sense of humour that verges on caustic." She had always felt herself to be rather unique and felt ostracized by other kids at school because "they could never understand what I had to say." Her mother, however, attributed her lack of belonging to a "haughty attitude." She said that although she had the ;lighest IQ in her class she never i I I I I I ' , , I I I I I I . I 1 I I I I I 84. Ii ved up to her intellectual potential potential, much to the