Psychoanalytic Psychology

Zucker, Herbert

doi: 10.1037/0736-9735.6.4.401pmid: N/A

Premises of interpersonal theory are elucidated in order to crystallize its foundations and to point up the utility of discussing psychoanalytic theory on the level of premises. In regard to human psychology, interpersonal theory assumes an inextricable interpenetration of biology and external influences. It therefore questions assigning biology or “biologized” concepts predominance in explaining meaning or the contents of the mind. Biology is implicated in many interpersonal concepts, but not in the form implied in such concepts as drive or inherently arising endogenous states. Rather than an unfolding general nature, interpersonal theory assumes an outcome emerging from the interaction of manifold biological potentials with complex social influences. Such a perspective implies further assumptions about human impressibility, social determinism, psycho/social multidimensionality, complexity, and uniqueness. These assumptions lead to a focus on individual psychology, on character, for example, rather than general psychology, and on holistic/field conceptions of causality rather than the causal linkage of relatively isolated dimensions. Emphasis on drive and endogenous states eventuates in an underestimation of the complexity of personality formation and of the subtlety and power of the psycho/social experiential interaction.

Diamond, Diana

doi: 10.1037/0736-9735.6.4.421pmid: N/A

This article examines the etiological role of incest as unconscious fantasy and incest as social fact in producing psychopathology. It reevaluates the importance of the Freudian theory of fantasy for an understanding of father-daughter incest, with particular attention to the relationship between fantasy and memory and between conscious and unconscious fantasy. Although the importance of acknowledging the social fact of incest is affirmed, I maintain that an analysis of the mental representation of the incest experience in fantasy is as crucial to the treatment of incest victims as is an acknowledgment of the primary etiological role of real victimization in producing pathological states. Case material is presented to illustrate the ways in which the reality of incest may combine with stage-specific fantasies to determine the nature and extent of the incest victim' pathology.

Bromfield, Richard

doi: 10.1037/0736-9735.6.4.439pmid: N/A

The increasingly dominant and sound view of autism as a developmental disorder has led to adoption of highly structured behavioral interventions and abandonment of psychoanalytic approaches. This article intends to reaffirm the relevance of traditional psychodynamic play therapy to the milder variants of the autistic syndrome. The therapy process with one high-functioning autistic child is examined and discussed in the context of autistic pathology and psychodynamic theory.

Diamond, Michael J.

doi: 10.1037/0736-9735.6.4.455pmid: N/A

There are a relatively large number of unexplored issues in treating severely neurotic, character-disordered patients. The defining characteristics of these patients are formulated in dynamic, structural, and object relational terms. A discussion of the masochistic character is presented to exemplify such features. It is suggested that treatment is an inescapable struggle due to the distinctly created transference-countertransference ambience wherein character resistances emerge as therapeutic stalemates. The milieus characterized by stagnation and chaos are examined in relation to clinical examples. Finally, three essential technical issues are considered in terms of therapists’ capacity to “hold” patients’ externalized material, use the countertransference, and sooner or later, interpret primitive defensive constellations and transferences.

Hirshberg, Laurence M.

doi: 10.1037/0736-9735.6.4.475pmid: N/A

The Rorschach protocols of 62 eating-disordered women were analyzed for content expressing symbiotic, separation, and counter-symbiotic strivings. Subjects were grouped into three symptom pattern groups and into borderline and nonborderline groups as measured by Gunderson's Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB). Very few differences in this content were found among the three symptom-based groups. Consistent and significant differences were found among these groups in the relation between overall Rorschach response productivity and the production of responses with this content. This suggests that the symptom patterns may reflect differing modes of self-regulation. Consistent and significant differences in the production of this content were also found between borderline and nonborderline groups, supporting clinically based claims that symbiotic Rorschach responses are diagnostic of borderline functioning.

Butler, Carol A.

doi: 10.1037/0736-9735.6.4.495pmid: N/A

Cohler, Bertram J.

doi: 10.1037/0736-9735.6.4.497pmid: N/A

Cohler, Bertram J.

doi: 10.1037/0736-9735.6.4.503pmid: N/A