ABSTRACT
Attention is called to ways in which the analyst's subjective experience and judgment of reality, aspects of his or her psychic reality, not only are necessary to the effective conduct of any psychoanalysis but play a positive and useful role. The theoretical framework of ego psychology risks overemphasizing the primacy of the analyst's reality, while self psychology risks discarding it in favor of the patient's psychic reality. Each view has its dangers, and an integration of both should be sought without losing the advantages of either. Although the analyst's view of reality may in some instances be relatively privileged, most often it is valuable as a heuristic device focusing the analyst's attention when a discrepancy appears between the patient's version of reality and that of the analyst. When used in such a manner, it enhances rather than detracts from the analytic, empathic investigation of the patient's reality.
Subject(s)
Professional-Patient Relations , Psychoanalysis , Psychoanalytic Therapy , Defense Mechanisms , Ego , Empathy , Female , Humans , Male , Self PsychologyABSTRACT
Intuition represents an unconscious cognitive activity, the results of which become conscious at some point. Some recent nonpsychoanalytic explorations of cognition and consciousness are examined to illuminate our understanding of these processes and their relation to the psychoanalytic process. Our thesis is that intuition may be most usefully viewed as a form of unconscious pattern-matching cognition, which becomes conscious under certain conditions and which is only loosely related to primary process. A clinical example is given of the analyst's intuition to illustrate the initial ostensibly theory-free nature of the raw intuition and the subsequent theory-bound explorations of the intuitive conclusion. Implications for teaching and learning psychoanalysis are noted.
Subject(s)
Awareness , Consciousness , Psychoanalytic Theory , Psychoanalytic Therapy , Unconscious, Psychology , Adult , Countertransference , Defense Mechanisms , Female , Humans , Physician-Patient Relations , Psychoanalytic Therapy/educationABSTRACT
Sibling triangles exist independent of parent-child triangles and undergo parallel development into constellations bearing significant formal and dynamic similarities to the standard parent-child oedipal relationships. They may exert definitive effects on the individual's identifications, adult object choices, and patterns of relating. Recognition of such constellations and their outcomes is often crucial to successful therapy. A developmental line is delineated with emphasis on the recapitulation throughout development of oedipal sibling issues. Speculations are offered about the possible factors responsible for pathological outcomes of oedipal sibling triangles, and about why, in many cases, oedipal sibling experience may be more influential in development than oedipal parental experience.
Subject(s)
Oedipus Complex , Psychoanalytic Interpretation , Sibling Relations , Adolescent , Adult , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Male , Object Attachment , Parent-Child Relations , Personality Development , Psychoanalytic TheoryABSTRACT
The constituents of the complex affective experience of envy are delineated, and defenses against each of these constituents are explored. Attention is then called to a common, variably adaptive, and socially approved means of obviating or coping with envious feelings, involving a partial identification and culminating in the conscious experience of "being proud of." A conjecture is made regarding the kind of pathology most likely to interfere with this mechanism.
