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terminology - "Shuttling between the anal and genital zones of development." Huh?


Here's a quote from Lolita:



"Dolly Haze," she said, "is a lovely child, but the onset of sexual maturing seems to give her trouble."


I bowed slightly. What else could I do?


"She is still shuttling," said Miss Pratt, showing how with her liver-spotted hands, "between the anal and genital zones of development. Basically she is a lovely..."


"I beg your pardon," I said, "what zones?"


"That's the old-fashioned European in you!" cried Pratt delivering a slight tap on my wrist watch and suddenly disclosing her dentures. "All I mean is that biologic drives--do you smoke?--are not fused in Dolly, do not fall so to speak into a--into a rounded pattern."


Her hands held for a moment an invisible melon.



What the hell does it mean? Is it some kind of late 1940's psychobabble, or a disdainful parody of same, or what?




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