Psychoanalytic Psychology

Blum, Alan; Danson, Mark; Schneider, Stephen

doi: 10.1037/h0079721pmid: N/A

Though most psychoanalytic theorists have embraced homosexuality as pathological, Freud's views were less definite, more complex, and more conflicted in this regard. Rather than assuming that factors intrinsic to homosexuality underlie aberrant patterns of adult sexual expression, we explore extrinsic factors that impinge on gay men at developmentally critical periods of life, which may underlie nonnormative sexual expression. Specifically, we suggest that early caretaking environments fail to receive, affirm, and encourage same-sex libidinal attachments and expressions; moreover, such expressions are often met with shame, threat, or direct attack. Frequently, the result is the massive shutting down, compartmentalization, or both, of adult homosexual expression. Case studies are presented to illuminate this formulation. The psychoanalytic therapist who ignores the impact of developmental failures and impingements on gay men often unwittingly reenacts these, with the effect of supporting dissociative and repressive mechanisms that impair healthy adult homosexual expression.

Gartner, Richard B.

doi: 10.1037/h0079722pmid: N/A

In this article, I examine the literature on sexually abused men and illustrate with clinical examples from my individual and group psychoanalytic practice the themes that emerge in working with them. Sexual abuse situations with boys are considered in three groups: those involving penetration, those involving inappropriate tactile contact, and those involving noncontact seduction and excitation. The boundary violation inherent in all of these situations is crucial in the treatment of the man who has been abused, as is the familial context of the abuse. Because of societal expectations about male sexuality, men may have trouble considering early sexual experience abusive, particularly if the abuser was the same gender as the man's eventual object choice. Straight or gay men who were abused by men may have questions about their sexual orientation. Acquiescence to abuse may bring up similar concerns. Sexually abused men may have difficulty differentiating among sex, love, nurturance, affection andabuse. This creates considerable difficulty in their adult relationships, sexual and otherwise. For the analyst treating men who were sexually abused, there may be feelings of being overwhelmed by the seductive energy in the analytic relationship and also wishes to reel back and deny the horror of the material being discussed.

Howes, David

doi: 10.1037/h0079723pmid: N/A

The Trobriand Islands, which are situated in the Massim reg on of Papua New Guinea, are one of the most famous testing grounds of Freudian theory. It was on the basis of data gathered there in the 1910s that the ethnographer Bror islaw Malinowski (1924) rocked the psychoanalytic establishment by questioning the universality of the Oedipus complex. Malinowski's argument was subsequently refuted by Melford Spiro (1982) in Oedipus in the Trobriands. In this article I take a new look at the Trobriands Oedipus controversy, paying special attention to the evidence of the senses, and I conclude that Malinowski was perhaps even more right than he suspected. I demonstrate that the sensory organization of the Trobriand psyche during the period ranging from infancy to the end of adolescence differs in certain important respects from that of the Western psyche and that these differences are conducive to the emergence of the alternative social organization of the psyche described by Malinowski in his original paper on the Trobriand complete.

Ollech, Dianne; McCarthy, James

doi: 10.1037/h0079724pmid: N/A

Forming a firm sense of identity is the developmental achievement of adolescence postulated by Erikson, but only recently has the subjective experience of female adolescents been thoroughly examined. It is our opinion that cultural, social, and psychological factors attenuate female identity formation and the development of ego strengths throughout girlhood. Girls tend to experience greater increases in anxiety, conflict, shame, self-doubt when faced with choice, and the lack of differentiation from the family and culture at large. Ego weaknesses and cultural pressures render girls' identity formation process more difficult and attained identity more tenuous. In this article, we summarize and explore important aspects of female psychology, including parenting arrangements, the impact of cultural and social forces, and female sexuality. We also discuss the normative psychological changes that occur in adolescence and their relevance for adolescent girls.

Goldman, Gail F.; Gelso, Charles J.

doi: 10.1037/h0079725pmid: N/A

In this study, we sought to determine whether changes in narcissism among adolescents; occurred during a 6-month period of treatment for substance abuse and whether level of narcissism was related to progress in treatment and treatment persistence versus withdrawal. Participants were 95 adolescents (M = 16 years of age) entering or already in long-term treatment for drug abuse, surveyed three times over 6 months. Narcissism was measured by two instruments based on Kohut's theory of narcissistic development. Findings indicated that many, but not all, narcissistic characteristics did change during treatment. Theorized relations were found between narcissisc scores and progress in treatment for most narcissistic manifestations. The ability to relinquish angry acting-out behavior distinguished dropouts from persisters.

McCarthy, James B.

doi: 10.1037/h0079726pmid: N/A

This article describes how narcissistic adolescent's needs for admiration and fusion are driven by primitive fears of annihilation and dependency. Freudian, British object relations, and interpersonal views of extreme adolescent narcissism are compared, and a case vignette is presented to emphasize the importance of an active analytic engagement with narcissistic adolescent patients.

Yerushalmi, Hanoch

doi: 10.1037/h0079727pmid: N/A

Adolescence brings about rapid bodily changes followed by psychic reorganization. The environment is used to help in attaching new relational meaning to repressed and revived versions of the self (M. Slavin & Kriegman, 1992). Through this process, adolescents differentiate and redefine themselves and consolidate their identity. In this article I describe and discuss some central experiences of late adolescents who serve as soldiers in Israeli combat units. Military service in a combat unit provides an environment different from those of adolescents in the Western world. Experiences such as the feeling of brotherhood in arms and complete devotion among the soldiers and the idealization by one's family and the larger society may serve as facilitating factors for development. However, constriction of the possibilities for social experimentation, dependency aroused by the totality of the army as an organization, and the lack of direct emotional contact with the other gender contribute to inhibit the developmental process.

Rabin, Herbert M.

doi: 10.1037/h0085221pmid: N/A

Cohler, Bertram J.

doi: 10.1037/h0085222pmid: N/A

Cohler, Bertram J.

doi: 10.1037/h0085223pmid: N/A