Full Description
A psychoanalyst, through training and experience, directs the en tire focus of his attention to registering and internalizing the in put of a patient's communications, listening intently for their implied meanings. It is only by umaveling the mysteries of an un conscious realm of mental activity that it becomes possible to fully comprehend the way in which mental productions are finally ob servable. The psychoanalyst's total personality is the listening in strument, and the messages emanating from this hidden sector most clearly heard, deciphered, and understood are those most resonant with the contents of the psychoanalyst's unconscious. It is probable that a variety of psychoanalysts adopting a listening posture with a given patient would hear and understand a mul tiplicity of different meanings. Over the years, sensitive, well trained psychoanalytic investigators have formulated concepts con cerning mental functioning from disparate and often opposing points of view. These contradictory ideas are offered from a ba sic theoretical foundation placing unconscious mental events as the most important force shaping human experience. Divergent opin ions may at times appear irreconcilable and then serve as the grounds for developing a separate psychoanalytic school of thought. It is not surprising that an exploration of unseen powerful and regressive forces, by a group of scientists with unique in dividual experiences, would yield insights sensitively attuned to a wide variety of important factors determining human develop ment and behavior.
Contents
1. Body Ego Experience and the Nuclear Self: The Onset of Unconscious Perception.- Clinical Material.- The Effect of Empathic Responsiveness and Empathic Failures upon Unconscious Perceptions.- The Nuclear Self—A Definition.- The Background Object of Primary Identification and Its Significance for the Nuclear Self.- Qualities of Goodness and Badness and Their Representation in the Nuclear Self.- The Part Self-Representations of Goodness.- The Part Self-Representations of Badness.- The Consolidation of the Representations of the Self and the Development of Consensual Validation.- Splitting as a Translocation of Perception.- The Self with Object Qualities and the Object with Self-Qualities.- Discussion.- 2. The Qualities of Perceptual Experience and Object Impressions: The Self- and Object Representational Systems.- Clinical Material.- The Conditions for Establishing a System of Object Representations.- The Initial Object Impressions and Their Further Representation.- The Representations of the Good Object.- The Representations of the Bad Object.- The Interrelationship of the Self- and Object Representational Systems.- The Process of Separation-Individuation.- The "Bipolar" Self: The Introjective and Projective Arms of Perception.- Discussion.- 3. Libido as Object Seeking and the Mechanism of Splitting: An Integration of Libidinal and Object Relations Theory.- Clinical Material.- The Nature of Perceptual Activity in the Nuclear State.- The Original Object for Libidinal Representation.- The Developmental Significance of Splitting.- The Foundation for Processes of Internalization and the Relationship to Splitting.- Libido as Object Seeking.- Discussion.- 4. Separation-Individuation: The Formation of New Psychic Structures.- Clinical Material.- Preparing for Separation-Individuation: The Healing of Splits within the Ego and the Consolidation of Object Impressions.- The Object Representational System.- The Process of Separation-Individuation: The Development of the Eye of Consciousness and the Function of Self-Observation.- The Development of the First Fixation Point.- The Formation of New Structure.- The Interrelationship between Perception and Structure Formation.- Discussion.- 5. The Onset of Cohesiveness: The Formationand Function of the Grandiose Self and the Ego Ideal.- Clinical Material.- The Self with Object Qualities.- The Object with Self-Qualities.- The Expansion of the Self- and Object Representations into Functional Systems.- The Formation of the First Fixation Point: The Onset of Cohesiveness.- The Formation of Unifying and Differentiating Structures: The Grandiose Self and Ego Ideal.- The Formation of Perceptual Boundaries within the Self: The Superego Eye.- A Brief Look to the Future: The Relationship of Cohesiveness to the Oedipal Conflict.- Discussion.- 6. The Pregenital Phases of Psychosexual Development: The Evolution of Focused Perceptual Functions and Boundaries and the Preconditions forthe Establishment of an Oedipal Conflict.- Clinical Material.- The Self-System of Representation in the Pregenital Phases of Psychosexual Development.- The Whole Good Self.- The Whole Bad Self.- The Object System of Representations in the Pregenital Phases of Psychosexual Development.- The Whole Good Object.- The Whole Bad Object.- The Influence of Varied Objects.- The Original Transitional Object and the Creation of Transitional Space.- The Evolution of Varied Systems of Consciousness.- The Emergence of Repression Proper as the Primary Defense of the Ego.- The Structure and Significance of Castration Anxiety.- The Preconditions Necessary for the Elaboration of an Oedipal Conflict.- An Introduction to the Organizing Influence of the Genital Oedipal Constellation and Its Resolution.- Discussion.- 7. The Oedipal Conflict as a Psychic Organizer.- Clinical Material.- The Shift from Narcissism to Object Relatedness.- The Relationship of Castration Anxiety to the Emerging Oedipal Constellation.- The Oedipal Situation.- The Relationship to the Systems of Consciousness.- The Effect upon the Self- and Object Representational Systems.- The New Structures Formed by the Oedipal Conflict.- The Pathway of Integration.- The New Boundary for the Unconscious System.- The New Defensive Unions.- The Oedipal Conflict in Males and Females.- The Male Oedipal Constellation.- The Female Oedipal Constellation.- The Significance of Object-Related Perceptions.- Discussion.- 8. The Resolution of the Oedipal Conflict: The Consolidation of the Superego into an Independently Functioning Agency and the Process of Alteration inthe Fixation Points.- Clinical Material.- The Structural Precursors of the Superego: Negotiating the Shift from Narcissism to Object Relatedness.- The Polarization of Superego Functions: Splits in the Superego.- The Integration of Superego Functions: The Healing of Superego Splits.- Changes in the Fixation Points with Resolution of the Oedipal Conflict.- The Fixation Point on the Projective Arm of Perception: The Process of Depersonification.- The Fixation Point on the Introjective Arm of Perception: The Process of Integration.- The Relationship of the Consolidated Superego to Its Structural Precursors and the Functional Systems of Representation.- The Grandiose Self.- The Structure of the Ego Ideal.- Castration Anxiety: The Lines of Continuity of Experience.- The Emergence of Repression Proper as the Major Ego Defense.- The Functional Systems of Representation.- The Good Self.- The Good Object.- The Bad Self.- The Bad Object.- Superego Regulation of the Pathway of Instinctual Integration.- Discussion.- 9. Significance of the Latency Period.- Clinical Material.- The Developmental Tasks of Latency.- The Significance of the Points of Fixation.- The Significance of the Organizing Function of the Oedipal Conflict.- The Significance of the Healing of Superego Splits.- The Significance of Alterations in the Fixation Points.- Discussion.- 10. Pubescence: Relinquishing the Attachment to Primary Infantile Objects and Their Replacement with New Objects.- Clinical Material.- The Landmarks of Pubescence in Boys and Girls: The First Ejaculatory Experience and the Menarche.- The Grandiose Self and Ego Ideal in Pubescence.- The Conditions for Replacement of Infantile Attachments to an Object.- The Process of Replacement of the Representations of Infantile Objects.- The Readiness for Genital Discharge: A Structured, Regulated Pathway for Instinctual Integration.- The Relationship of the Fixation Points to the Conflict-Free Sphere.- Pubescence: A New Period of Separation-Individuation.- Discussion.- 11. The Final Step to Maturity: The Genital Character.- Clinical Material.- The Pregenital Attachments to an Object and the Conditions Necessary for Their Replacement.- Replacing the Infantile Representations of an Object.- The Conflict-Free Sphere of Ego Functions in the Genital Character.- The Processes of Work, Play, and Love in the Genital Character and the Activities That Sustain Them.- Discussion.- References.
