Midterm Flashcards
Actual Neuroses
psychopathology caused by an actual physical trauma. • A neurosis is a psychological state characterized by excessive anxiety or insecurity without evidence of neurologic or other organic disease, sometimes accompanied by defensive or immature behaviors. • Into the class of actual neuroses fell, chiefly, neurasthenia and anxiety neurosis. Later Freud added hypochondria.
affects
pre-linguistic – once we can put language to it, it’s a feeling
( the conscious subjective aspect of an emotion considered apart from bodily changes; also : a set of observable manifestations of a subjectively experienced emotion)
Anal Stage
Control self for the sake of the other; maintain control by retaining.
- Anal expulsive – clients do whatever they want – impulsive with no consequences
- (2-4 years of age) during which the child derives libidinal satisfaction from the retention or expulsion of feces. Moving toward autonomy and independence, resolution: independence, lack of ambivalence, autonomy, initiative
Anal Sadistic
Struggle b/w control and expulsion
- Anal sadistic – aggression expulsion – response to controls
- Aggressive acting-out - expression of anger wishes connected with discharging feces as destructive (example of fantasies of explosions)
Psychoanalytic Theory of Anxiety
- When child first displays anxiety and shame, the superego is emerging
- Focus on function of anxiety related to threats to the organism
- Real anxiety: threat from a known danger
- Neurotic anxiety: threat from an unknown source
- Anna Freud – three types of anxiety; instinctual (ego vs. id), superego (ego vs. superego), and objective (ego vs. external world).
Average Expectable Environment (Hartmann)
Hartmann; an environment that is responsive to the child’s psychological needs.
Basic Trust
(Erikson) - Erikson’s Epigenetic Sequence of Inst. Zones…. Successful resolution of first crisis stage: disposition to trust others, oneself and have self-confidence.
Castration Anxiety
(during phallic stage) identification with the father. Fear of castration due to the realization of forbidden sexual desire. Symbolic threat to genitals, not physical.
cathexis
An investment of libido energy – goes inside for children of abuse and neglect – can become schizoid.
• energy focused on (attached to) a certain emotion, object, other person, or self.
Component Instinct
Highly charged sexually charged experiences are components that become part of mature sexuality
• Component = certain highly charged sexual experiences are all components that will become part of mature genital sexuality.
compromise formation
- Drive coming up against superego experience that leads to anxiety – the negotiation between the id, ego, and superego.
• It is the balance of defense and expression. Occurs outside our awareness. Think of the ego defense to ward off anxiety
conflict-free ego capacities
synthetic functions of the ego that are conflict free, innate, and inherited. They allow infants to immediately fit into their immediate environment (AKA primary autonomous ego function). The equipment that allows them to do so consists of a set of intrinsic potentials called CFECs. This is in contrast to other psychoanalytic work, which indicates that adaptation comes out of resolution of conflict, whereas Hartmann stated that these abilities are inborn.
consciousness/ system CS
- awareness of the immediate environment.
• The actual contents of awareness; i.e., what one is conscious of at a given moment. Freud’s way of talking about “the conscious” is similar to what a cognitive psychologist means by attention.
developmental lines
Anna Freud believed that development moves back and forth along multiple lines of development, and that a child can develop in one area, but not in another. These development lines tracked the unfolding of a specific maturational theme at different periods of children’s lives and indicated what was typical or atypical. The level a child reaches on a developmental line is the result of the interaction of drives, ego development, and its relation to the nurturing environment. She proposed the existence of multiple developmental lines and made a distinction between normal and pathological development. This presented a major departure from the previous developmental model and instead depended on day-to-day observation of children.
drive and law of entropy
The drives constituted the motive forces that activate the human psyche. The law of entropy stated that, in nature, systems tend to move from a higher to a lower level of organization. Freud conceived of the mind as an energy processing apparatus that obeys the laws of entropy. The accumulation of energy within the psyche is converted into anxiety; unless the energy is discharged or transformed, symptom formation ensues. Energy transformation leads to higher levels of organization whereas symptom formation leads to lower levels.
drive derivative
It is an alternate expression of a plastic instinct. Instincts can be expressed in multiple vehicles. For example a sports car is a drive derivative of the sex instinct. Conscious ideation is a drive derivative of the unconscious drive.
economic hypothesis or Entropy Model
- Newtonian mechanistic view of the workings of physical objects and the law of entropy as compared the workings of the mind. The concept of energy is central to the workings of the psyche. The drives are the motivating forces that activate the human psyche. Energy that accumulates within a system leads to a buildup of pressure, which unless relieved, would lead to the destruction of the system.
Ego/Ego Function
Ego allows you to manage and moderate impulses when your biology wants you to do otherwise
• Intellectual part of selves that does reality testing
• Contact with external reality is an ego function
• All learning and modification comes through the ego
• Creates compromise
ego-dystonic, ego-syntonic
Drives influence ideas and behaviors. These drives are either Ego Dystonic (unacceptable to the ego, or experienced as foreign to the self) or Ego Syntonic (consistent with the ego ideals)
ego ideal
Forms through late anal into phallic stage
• Internalized expectations to perform in a certain way; not living up to these expectations leads to shame
• A component of the superego
ego instincts
Freud’s understanding that there are other kinds of motivations like eating, breathing, sleeping – these are life-sustaining and not related to neuroses; in opposition to drives.
electra complex
the incestuous desire of the daughter to have sexual relations with her father. It begins with the identification with her mother. Then the girl comes upon her own castration. She turns her love interest to her father. Through her father she hopes to gain a substitute penis through babies. Eventually she begins to identify with her mother.
eros
Instinct of love/libido; life instincts.
erotogenic zone
zones of the body that are more gratifying at different stages
• Freudian can be oral, anal, or genital centers in which pleasure is derived.
• These zones he saw as locations of particular instincts known as “component instincts.” In neurosis, nongenital erotogenic zones come to function as substitutes for the genitals. The idea of erotogenic zones was inseparable from the theory of libidinal stages, each of which, at a certain age, is fixed upon a particular zone.
fantasy
can involve imagining images during the daytime, dreaming at night, and can be a creative adjustment function; accompanies all psychological interaction. It is unconscious, something that is being mentally constructed, that we will never fully see at the true unconscious level.
• For the mother, the more positive the prenatal experience is, the more positive her fantasies will be of the unborn child.
• Expectant mothers tend to reduce their fantasies in the 7th month to reduce disappointment if the child is not perfect
fixation
An arrest at a phase of development because of difficulties the child cannot overcome.
genetic Viewpoint
the course of an individual’s development follows inborn laws that represent a sequential series of invariant phases or stages. Freud’s psychosexual model is an expression of the genetic hypothesis.
genital/oedipal phase
- is an area of dispute between theorists. Freud proposed that it takes place between the ages of 2.5 and 6. While Klein suggests that the Oedipus complex begins at the end of the first year or beginning of the second year. She also added the femininity complex for boys.
• Basic ideas of the Oedipus stage/complex:
o A boy fears that his father will punish him for his feelings toward his mother by removing the locus of these feelings, the penis. This fear causes the boy to abandon his incestuous attachment to his mother and begin to identify with his father, imitating him and adopting his values, a process that results in the formation of the boy’s superego.
o Paralleling the castration anxiety felt by boys, girls experience penis envy. The girl blames her mother for depriving her of a penis and desires her father because he possesses one. Ultimately, the girl, like the boy, represses her incestuous desires and comes to identify with the same-sex parent, the mother, through the development of a superego.
o Freud: instinctual drives, aims, object relations, fears, and identifications are organized during the phallic stage.
homeostasis
Cannon described (in Schore, p. 157) the maintenance of the internal milieu by control systems that regulate the functioning of the organs and tissues as homeostatis. • Infant’s internal milieu → relationship with their mother • “tendency of organism to restore equilibrium if constancy is disturbed”
hysteria
conversion d/o – the first ones Freud looked at
• Some psychological content gets affixed to a body part or some external object.
• Neurosis characterized by emotional instability, repression, dissociation and suggestibility. The theory behind this is that the event that is causing the conversion disorder is so disturbing that it can’t be thought of consciously, so it is converted somatically.
identification
“Process where self representation is altered to become more like the representation of another, occurring intrapsychically,” example of child modeling behavior after the same-sex parent
• p. 53 in Stern: Identification is an active dynamic process made of sequences of mental acts in real time… function is to make child more like a parent… general, pervasive process that occurs over a long period of time.
• Karen: Identification may lead to negative results: identification with hated aspects of a parent.
infantile neurosis
- fixation points in childhood. How we manage all of the conflicts in childhood influence how we manage these conflicts as adults
instinct (Freud)
(Per Freud) - Drive, instinct is a psychic representation of a somatic state
• Freud: “a concept that functions between the mental and somatic realms as a psychic representative of stimuli, which come from the organism and exercise their influence on the mind”
instinctual Aim
what it is that the person wants to get out
• If aggression, object is the object of that aim – destroy a specific object
• One of the four elements of an instinct. The idea that the aim of the instinct is always satisfaction.
instinctual object
wherever there is an impulse there needs to be an object. For example, in order to have a sexual instinct there needs to be an object to act out that instinct. Failure to find an object to achieve the instinctual aim leads to instinctual frustration…this leads to pain.
• The object is that in or through which satisfaction can be achieved. The object can be the subject’s own body.
introjection
According to Freud, the ego and the superego are constructed by introjecting external behavioral patterns into the subject’s own persona.
psychic determinism
Nothing is random - everything is some kind of outcome or compromise
The assumption that behind every mental process there is a cause either unconscious or conscious (“Freudian slip”)
Nothing is random, everything is determined and explainable.
We are led by our motivations, even if not conscious of it. Every action is meaningful, and finds its basis in instincts…instincts shape motivation
reality principle
attending to external reality; awareness of the demands of the environment and the necessity of conforming to those demands.
Enables the ego to come to terms with what is real, even though it may be disagreeable, rather than what is merely desired
Reality principle modifies the pleasure principle to meet demands of external reality… closely related to maturation of ego functions (Meissner, 138)
repetition compulsion
drive is attempting to be expressed and keeps being expressed over and over again but is not being fulfilled
Freudian view: A drive being expressed and until it reaches final gratification, it will continue to be expressed in this repetitive manner. If expressing in a neurotic fashion, it will repeat until the direct form of expression is achieved
Contemporary view: Repetition until resolution or compromise is reached
repression
Forceful ejection from consciousness of impulses, memories, or experiences that are painful and shameful and generate a high level of anxiety
resistance
An attempt on the part of the patient to avoid having unconscious material come to consciousness—opposition to the development of insight
return of the repressed
an intolerable drive derivative bursts forth from repression
and gives rise to conflict and compromise formation and is dealt with by reestablishing repression (childish way of thinking - primary process thinking)
secondary autonomous
Hartmann) - those functions that were once involved in developmental conflicts, such as oral, anal, or phallic/oedipal and were freed as a result of the resolution of those conflicts through the process of neutralization
For example, a child’s ability to think clearly may be contaminated by conflicts around sexuality or aggression. Secondary autonomy of that function results in clear, unambiguous thinking following the resolution of those conflicts (p. 53 – Palombo text)
secondary process
onscious mental activity, particularly conscious and rational activity directed toward satisfaction of drives
Under control of ego: thought processes including problem solving, judgment, and systematic thinking enable us to meet the external demands of the environment, and the internal demands of our instincts, in rational, effective ways
signal anxiety
Anxiety is a warning sign that signals that your mind is about to endure a reawakening of a traumatic event or other psychic danger. It is seen as defense mechanism because experiencing anxiety is better than re-experiencing the trauma or other dangerous mental experiences
stimulus barrier
a level of stimuli which is too overwhelming produces anxiety in the child; once barrier is over-stimulated, gives a psychophysiological reaction.
The early pre-ego process in which the infant protects itself from unbearable overstimulation. It is based on an innate ability to perceive and differentiate painful states of increasing tension and pleasurable states of decreasing tension.
structural approach
id, ego, and superego
sublimation
An unconscious process where the libido or sex instinct is transformed into a more desirable outlet. Any redirection of socially unacceptable impulses into acceptable channels.—an adaptive formal structure
return of the repressed
an intolerable drive derivative bursts forth from repression
and gives rise to conflict and compromise formation and is dealt with by reestablishing repression (childish way of thinking - primary process thinking)
secondary autonomous
Hartmann) - those functions that were once involved in developmental conflicts, such as oral, anal, or phallic/oedipal and were freed as a result of the resolution of those conflicts through the process of neutralization
For example, a child’s ability to think clearly may be contaminated by conflicts around sexuality or aggression. Secondary autonomy of that function results in clear, unambiguous thinking following the resolution of those conflicts (p. 53 – Palombo text)
latency
b/w oedipal & genital; 5 to puberty: sexual energy is sublimated into a process of becoming socialized: used for energetic play activities and learning…. Superego now allows for the control of more instinctual impulses—there is no new sexual demand placed on the child
latent content
(Dreams) - outside of awareness; symbolic content
libido
sexual drive
manifest content
mbodies the experienced content of a dream. Freud postulated that the dreams of adults have been subjected to distortion, with the dream’s so-called ‘manifest content’ being a heavily disguised derivative of the ‘latent’ dream-thoughts present in the unconscious.
metapsychology
Freud’s metapsychology is composed of 5 different POVs incorporating most of the positions throughout his life. Economic (amount of energy taken up and discharged in the psyche), topographic (CS, PCS, UCS), dynamic (focuses on the balance of forces and counterforces acting on the drives), genetic (developmental), structural (id, ego, superego as the major agencies of the mind).
multidetermined/overdetermined
• Everything has multiple sources = MD
o Nothing is random – things are not as simple as they appear
• Lot of mental content to it = OD
o Several aspects (dreams, behavior, symptoms,) may be caused by one specific line (castration anxiety…)
narcissism, primary
The self-involvement all infants start out with. The investment of libido into oneself.
narcissism, secondary
A turning of libido away from objects back to the ego, as with what we now call the narcissistic personality.
object
Human object; when we talk about “the mother,” we’re not talking about the child’s actual mother - more about how the child conceptualizes the mother and is informed by fantasy and needs (in the context of drive states) – a psychological object in their mind. (Kohut)
object constancy
According to Mahler, object constancy can be defined as the capacity to recognize and tolerate loving and hostile feelings toward the same object, the capacity to keep feelings centered on a specific object, and the capacity to value an object for attributes other than its function of satisfying needs. Anna Freud also used this term to refer to the point at which the mother continues to be the most important person for the child regardless of whether she gratifies or frustrates his/her needs, which occurs around ages 6-8 months. Implies a capacity to differentiate between objects and to maintain a meaningful relationship with one specific object whether needs are being satisfied or not.
oedipus complex
The repressed desire for sexual intercourse with parent of opposite sex, manifestation of early genital phase of development”
• Boy wants a relationship with his mom and wants to do away with dad as he sees him as his rival. Projects that feeling of aggression onto his dad creating castration anxiety. Then he buries the hatchet, identifies with dad and wants to be more like him. For many adults, unresolved Oedipal feelings are disturbing and frequently distorting of their lives. His future relationships with women are affected by how he worked through competitive feelings in Oedipal phase.
oral stage paranoid schizoid position
(Klein) - The infant split between wholly good experiences with “good” objects and wholly bad experiences with “bad” objects. Infant realizes that loved “good object” and hated “bad object” are aspects of the same object. Feelings of guilt arise for acts or fantasies of aggression towards the object and desires to make reparation. Position does not refer to a stage, but rather a configuration of object relations, anxieties, and defenses, which persist throughout life. Child sees the mother as nurturing and angry at the same time, resulting in splitting. The child is unable to hold both the good and bad representation of the mother
penis envy
(Freudian) - identifies with father b/c he has a penis, then later, with mother because she can have babies and doesn’t have a penis
• Freud’s theory: Girls discover during the phallic period that their clitoris is inferior to male penis…feel intense sense of loss, narcissistic injury and envy of penis. She views mother as responsible for this, also lacking a penis, and exhibits hatred and devaluation of mother…turns to father in attempt to compensate for her inadequacy… Meissner, 109
• Feminist Perspectives - power position: symbolic of power systems in families
phallic stage
“infantile period following the oral and anal periods in which the child discovers pleasure giving possibilities of the penis or vagina”
• Construct meanings of what is ok, and what is dirty or bad. This is the stage of Oedipus and Electra complex
• Lays foundation for sense of sexual identity, curiosity, initiative without guilt, mastery over objects in environment and internal impulses. Resolution gives rise to internal resources for regulation of drive impulses, and superego.
• Proper resolution allows for increased internal resources for regulation of drive impulses, and superego. However, if the child is allowed too much pleasure, or not enough pleasure, they will become fixated, leading to a Phallic Personality; characterized by self assurance, vanity, or impulsive behavior.
phylogeny
Passing down of biological orientation.
• Mental content can be passed down generation to generation through biology
• Jung projects onto universe, Freud sees it as strictly biological origin and evolution of the species (mental contents can be passed down genetically)
• This theory, often expressed as “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny,” essentially provides that occurrences during the early development of the species (phylogeny) has influence over the later life of the organism (ontogeny: individual). Thus, the development of the individual mirrors the development of the species.
pleasure/unpleasure
the goal of psychic activity is to avoid unpleasure; increases in excitation resulting from the accumulation of non-discharged energies produces unpleasure, whereas the discharge of the accumulated tension associated with those energies produces pleasure; part of the economic hypothesis/entropy model (Freud & Breuer)
preconscious
applied to thoughts which are unconscious at the particular moment in question, but which are not repressed and are therefore available for recall and easily ‘capable of becoming conscious’ - a phrase attributed by Sigmund Freud to Joseph Breuer
primal scene
fragmentary recollections from early childhood based on real or imagined experiences of seduction or observation of parental intercourse. These recollections or fantasies make up elements of the neurosis
primary autonomous ego functions
Hartmann, divided ego functions into primary and secondary autonomous functions. Primary functions, such as the cognitive functions of perception, intelligence, thinking, comprehension, language, learning, and the synthetic function of the ego are innate, inherited ego characteristics and conflict-free.
primary process
one’s thinking (process) or sensation that is very close to the most raw biological aspects of the Self; not censored and potentially highly impressionistic. This cognition/mentation involves drives (i.e. aggression, images of blood), tends to be more primitive, unconscious and instinctual, and at or below a minimal linguistic level. This is often observed by one experiencing extreme psychosis (i.e. magical thinking: believing aggression is coming from inanimate objects).
primitive defenses
The most primitive of the defense mechanisms are considered to be so because they fundamentally rely on blatant misrepresentation or outright ignorance of reality in order to function. These mechanisms flourish in situations (and minds) where emotion trumps reason and impulsivity.
• Children use them naturally and normally. When adults use these methods on a regular basis, it is an indication that their emotional development is at some level delayed.
projective identification
Introduced by Melanie Klein, it is a defense mechanism that involves identifying with an object (Mom) in an effort to control their own aggressiveness onto whom they have projected their own aggressive impulses. It involves identifying with or internalizing impulses or characteristics that were projected onto the object.
psychoneuroses
(AKA Pseudoneuroses); psychological conflict – not actual damage.
• Group of syndromes that had a psychological basis (hysteria, obsessive-compulsiveness)
• This term refers to any mental imbalances that cause distress but, unlike psychosis and personality disorders, do not prevent or affect rational thought (i.e. obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety neurosis, hysteria, and phobias).
object relations
The mind can be considered an internalized object relation in that it is the interaction with the object that is internalized rather than the object itself. That is, the affective component of the interaction with the object is internalized (neutral interactions are not internalized). In any interaction with an object, there is a cognitive component, an affective response and a resulting impulse. In this way, object relations are shaped by the experience of pleasure (satisfaction/frustration). The mind then projects and evokes based on experiences, which are internalized object relations. Kernberg’s view appears to be consistent with the idea of RIGs; both appear to be representations of interactions that have been generalized or internalized. Both focus on early social experiences or episodes that become averaged and are represented preverbally. Both develop out of ways of being with others (usually in primary fusions).
secondary process
onscious mental activity, particularly conscious and rational activity directed toward satisfaction of drives
Under control of ego: thought processes including problem solving, judgment, and systematic thinking enable us to meet the external demands of the environment, and the internal demands of our instincts, in rational, effective ways
signal anxiety
Anxiety is a warning sign that signals that your mind is about to endure a reawakening of a traumatic event or other psychic danger. It is seen as defense mechanism because experiencing anxiety is better than re-experiencing the trauma or other dangerous mental experiences
stimulus barrier
a level of stimuli which is too overwhelming produces anxiety in the child; once barrier is over-stimulated, gives a psychophysiological reaction.
The early pre-ego process in which the infant protects itself from unbearable overstimulation. It is based on an innate ability to perceive and differentiate painful states of increasing tension and pleasurable states of decreasing tension.
structural approach
id, ego, and superego
sublimation
An unconscious process where the libido or sex instinct is transformed into a more desirable outlet. Any redirection of socially unacceptable impulses into acceptable channels.—an adaptive formal structure
superego
inner controls or ideals that become established at about 6 or 7 years of age
symbiosis
(Mahler) reciprocal relationship between two people. Symbiotic period of child development is when the child depends on the mother for survival - can be seen as “one psychic being” at its peak between 4/5 mos. Occurs before child develops own sense of individuality (separation-individuation)
synthetic function
ego has the ability to make sense of the world; opposite of regression (a loosening of ties with reality)
thanatos
the death instinct, which is directed toward the destruction of life and a return to the inorganic state (greek “death”). The aggressive drive in all its forms – violence, hostility, sadism, etc
topographic approach
Freudian topographic approach initially held sway as well as idea that neurotic anxiety was repressed libido “gone bad” rather than a sign of defense
transference
the projection or displacement upon the analyst of unconscious feelings and wishes originally directed toward the important individuals, such as parents, in the patient’s childhood. This process , which is at the core of psychoanalysis, brings repressed material to the surface where it can be re-experienced, studied, and “worked through.”
unconscious
For Freud, the unconscious is the storehouse of instinctual desires, needs, and psychic actions. While past thoughts and memories may be deleted from immediate consciousness, they direct the thoughts and feelings of the individual from the realm of the unconscious
A form of intrapersonal communication out of awareness. He interpreted these events as having both symbolic and actual significance
For psychoanalysis, the unconscious does not include all that is not conscious, rather only what is actively repressed from conscious thought or what the person is averse to knowing consciously
How is development understood from the perspective of instincts?
- Freud’s theory of personality is the concept of instinctual drives as the basic human motivation
- Instincts are innate; earliest intrapsychic state of a child is the state of narcissism, where the ego is the object of libidinal instinct and there are no external objects in which the child invests psychic energy
- drives precede the object and even “create” the object by experience of satisfaction and frustration, and the drives basically determine the quality of relationships
- essentially, the object is the creation of drives, and object relations are a function of drives
How is development understood from the perspective of object relations?
- crucial developmental issue is the child’s move from a state of fusion and dependence on the mother to a state of increased independence and increased differentiation
- obj. relations theory links the emergence of the self with the increasing maturity of relationships with objects
What is the difference between intrapsychic conflict and developmental deficit?
- intrapsychic conflict: freudian model sees pathology as conflict between instinctual demands and the demands of reality and conflict among the id, ego, and superego; unresolved conflicts of childhood (esp. unfinished oedipal conflicts, can continue and emerge during adulthood; as ego defensively responds to threatening thoughts –> neurotic compromise/symptoms
- developmental deficit: (object relations theory) psychological disturbance involves damage to the self and the structures of the psyche; early developmental deficits (1) hinder building a cohesive self and prevent the integration of psychic structures (2) aggression is not an instinct (like freud said) - it is a response/reaction to a pathological situation/relationship
Differentiate between object and object representation
- object: first used by freud - he thinks it refers to that which will satisfy a need; more broadly, object refers to the significant person or thing that is the object or taget of another’s feelings/drives; object relations theorists say an object is thing/person toward whom desire or action is direct/an object is that with which a subject relates
- object representation: how the person processes/psychologically represents an object
Differentiate between self and self-representation
- self: whole subject in contrast to the surrounding world of objects; can be used conceptually, to refer to the organization and integration of all the psychic agencies (incl. ego); self can refer to a basic experience (e.g. my experience of the person that I am)
- self-representation: mental expression of the self as it is experienced in relationship with the objects or significant persons in the child’s environment
What parts of Freud’s theory are enduring? What doesn’t seem to offer useful insight now in the 21st century?
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What area of Freud’s theory does the idea of relationship permeate?
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What are the specific foundation blocks in Freud’s theory upon which the object relations model is built?
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Comment on the central role that instinct plays in Freud’s theory
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What is innovative and insightful about the work of Melanie Klein even now, a half century later?
her understanding of early mental life pushed back intrapsychic development to an earlier point than freud had believed; her understanding of the preverbal, inner world of a child’s object relations stands as her prime achievement; extended concepts the concepts of object and object relations that Freud had initiated; discussed her work within instinctual context; drew attention to the phantasy world of a child’s youngest years and discovered some of the mechanisms infants use to deal with intense anxieties and drives and archaic urges and fears; learned that phantasies are a response to intense drives and feelings and dominate the early mental life of infants
drives are inherently directed towards objects; drives are relational; every urge and instinct is bound up with an object
What elements of Klein’s theory seem dated or not in concert with current experience?
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How does Klein build on Freud, and what are her bridges to later object relations theory?
Klein perserved Freud’s emphasis on instinct but understood instinct as instrinsically connected with objects so that drives are relational; impulses occur in an object relations context and are object oriented
Discuss Klein’s use of the term “internal objects.” What is the relation of internal objects to actual people in the child’s world?
klein used inner object rather than object representation - kohut used the term selfobject to refer to a state of fusion between the experience of self and the experience of the needed object - klein’s inner object corresponds to selfobject
suggestion: object representation is of an object from which separation has been achieved because the child is at a later stage of development
kleinian inner objects reflects more of the id rather than external objects and the kleinian inner world stresses the external world’s modification of the infant’s feelings rather than stressing the external world
How does Klein’s concept of the death instinct inform her theory of object relations?
a major source of the infant’s anxiety arises from the operation of the death instinct; the fear of this destructive impulse within the self attaches itself to an object that becomes uncontrollable and overpowering in the phantasies of the helpless infant
What is so innovative and refreshing about the work of Winnicott?
the delicate balance between the environment and evolving self
How does the notion of relationship pervade his concepts? What constitutes a “facilitating environment” and a “good enough” mother?
the conditions of the environment, whether favorable or unfavorable shape the infant’s development
characteristics of the facilitating environment is adaptation - used the term to describe the environment’s adaptation to the infant’s needs
the infants needs and maturational processes are central and it is the parent’s responsibility to adapt to them
the facilitating environment gives the infant an experience of omnipotence
good-enough mother: describe the parental function of providing sufficiently for the child to get a good start in life; provides for what the child needs at a particular developmental period in the relationship with the mother
Explain winnecott’s concept of the false self?
the false self develops at the earliest stage of object relations when there is not good-enough mothering, when the mother does not meet and implement the omnipotence of the infant; the presence of the false self results in the person feeling unreal and futile and unable to be genuine in relationships
What function does a transitional object serve for a developing child?
transitional object, an intermediate area of experience between subjective objects and true object relationships; the thing or sound becomes vitally important as a comfort or as a protection against anxiety and loneliness
Does winnecott have a coherent model, or is his work simply a connection of concepts and insightful ideas?
No, he enriched Freud and Klein’s theories by making significant contribution to the study of the person.
tripartie model/self
id- ego- superego – Freud’s model of the mind in structural theory
