Is Klein an infinitist about doxastic justification?

This paper is a response to Peter Klein's “Human Knowledge and the Infinite Progress of Reasoning” (also in this issue of this journal). After briefly discussing what Klein says about the requirement, for doxastic justification, that a belief be formed in the right way, I'll make the following three points: Klein's solution to the regress problem isn't an infinitist solution, Klein's position on doxastic justification faces a troubling dilemma, and Klein's objection to foundationalism fails.     

More controversies about panic disorder: A reply to Klein

In his discussion of McNally's article in Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (64, 88–91, 1996), Klein (1996a, Behaviour, Research and Therapy, 34, 849–853) clarifies and further defends his argument that cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) researchers must incorporate drug and pill placebo conditions in their trial designs and must demonstrate a significant drug effect before they are entitled to make inferences about CBT's antipanic effects. The purpose of this reply is to provide a critique and rebuttal of Klein's arguments.     

The ego according to Klein: return to Freud and beyond

This paper explores fundamental dimensions of Melanie Klein's concept of the ego through a detailed study of the writings of Klein and her early colleagues (Paula Heimann, Susan Isaacs and Joan Riviere). The study examines three central issues: (a) the basic theoretical framework for Klein's conceptualization of the ego, and specifically how her conceptualization builds on Freud's structural and dual instinct models; (b) the processes involved in the development of the ego and its capacities (including the development from id to ego and from ego to superego); and (c) the view of the ego as an object of phantasy. Through this examination, the study demonstrates that Klein's conceptualization of the ego is firmly grounded both in Freud's formulations about the ego and in his theoretical and metapsychological approach to thinking about the ego. This counters the prevalent view that Klein was only focused on clinical understandings, unconcerned with theory and fuzzy in her abstract thinking. More specifically, it counters the view that Klein did not really have a concept of the ego in any well-structured sense of the term (Britton, 2003; Hinshelwood, 1994; Segal, 2001). The study considers the sources of these misconceived views. Finally, it argues that discarding such views allows us to appreciate better the richness of Klein's thinking, her theoretical affinities to Freud, and the role of theory in the development and justification of psychoanalysis.     

On understanding projective identification in the treatment of psychotic states of mind: The publishing cohort of H. Rosenfeld, H. Segal and W. Bion (1946–1957)

A publishing cohort of Kleinian analysts – Rosenfeld, Segal and Bion – implemented Klein's (1946) notions of projective identification and the 'paranoid ' and 'schizoid ' positions in the understanding of a group of psychotic disorders. The author differentiates Klein's (1946) Notes on some schizoid mechanisms paper from its revised version of 1952, maintaining that it was Rosenfeld's clinical work during this period that helped to centralize Klein's redefinition of projective identification. The stage was set for Segal 's contribution in terms of 'symbolic equations,' where the psychotic's attack on the breast left him incarcerated in internal torment and persecution, where things-in-themselves were confused with what they symbolically represented. Segal in turn linked psychotic to normal, paranoid–schizoid to depressive positions, where by means of projective identification and symbolic imagination, the patient could arouse feelings in the analyst related to sadness, guilt and loss. Bion assumed that psychotic pathology reflected disordered thinking, when the severely disturbed used language as a mode of action. The psychotic was profoundly confused between the use of thought and action in the natural world – where thought was required, he preferred action and vice versa. Bion also drew upon projective identification in a new, broader way, so that analysis could now become more of an intersubjective, bi-directional field of projective and communicational influence between patient and analyst. The paper concludes with the impact of the work of Rosenfeld, Segal and Bion and variations on the technique of analyzing psychotic states in terms of the patient's early history, transference and countertransference.     

Vicious circles of punishment: a reading of Melanie Klein's Envy and gratitude

Staged as a moral drama, Melanie Klein's Envy and Gratitude (1957) straddles two eras: one reflecting a simpler more concrete, historical method, and the other an approach of greater complexity, focused on the transferential moment. Embedded within the transference are the vicious circles of envy and punishment that are the hallmark of Klein's text. Punishment itself which is always punishment of both self and other, creates its own vicious circle, set in motion by a single act. In the sadomasochistic enactments that result, the moral force of Klein's categories fuels the countertransference. A detailed clinical hour is presented.     

Knowledge and deductive closure

The question whether epistemological concepts are closed under deduction is an important one since many skeptical arguments depend on closure. Such skepticism can be avoided if closure is not true of knowledge (or justification). This response to skepticism is rejected by Peter Klein and others. Klein argues that closure is true, and that far from providing the skeptic with a powerful weapon for undermining our knowledge, it provides a tool for attacking the skeptic directly. This paper examines various arguments in favor of closure and Klein's attempted use of closure to refute skepticism. Such a refutation of skepticism is mistaken. But the closure principle is in any case false, so the skepticism that depends on it is undermined. The appeal of the closure principle derives from a failure to recognize an important feature of our epistemological concepts, namely, their context relativity.     

The class that would not read: utilizing Bion's affect theory in group.

While Bion's group theory continues to inspire contemporary group psychotherapists, his theory of human emotion is not as well known. Bion also introduced a system of alphabetical and mathematic symbols to offer a shorthand for his epistemology in order to make his ideas accessible, flexible, and practical for the working clinician. This article presents aspects of Bion's theory and metapsychological shorthand to conceptualize effectual dimensions of group process, thinking operations, and countertransference. The constructs considered include Klein's paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions; manic defenses; basic assumptions; "proto-mental" and "pre-monitory" emotions; instinctive drives L, H, and K (plus or minus); beta elements; and alpha functioning. With these ideas, the author was able to work through aspects of a group experience in which, as leader, he unknowingly found himself at an opposite affective pole from the members.     

Role of psychocultural factors in the adjustment of Soviet Jewish refugees: Applying Kleinian theory of mourning

The purpose of this paper is to show how failures of adjustment of Soviet refugees to America are to a great degree determined by their difficulties in mourning. The author argues that due to such difficulties, Soviet refugees may get fixated sometimes for long periods of time at different stages of the mourning process. Such fixations may be the causes for peculiar types of behavior, frequently exhibited by these refugees in America and attributed by various authors to their psychocultural characteristics. Melanie Klein's analysis of mourning and its relationship to manic depressive states is applied to understand the mourning process in this population. The author shows that difficulties in the mourning process experienced by Soviet refugees may be connected with the culturally acquired inhibitions of mourning. Such inhibitions are analyzed from a family, historical and cultural perspective.     

Double response to Stroop stimuli.

To reexamine Klein's 1964 findings we carried out two experiments on the double response made to Stroop stimuli. In Exp. 1 incongruent color-word stimuli were presented on a CRT online with a microcomputer. A color-word card was used in Exp. 2. Subjects were asked to read words before naming colors or, conversely, to name colors before reading words. An analysis of variance (the task x the type of task) was performed on response times in both experiments. Two main effects and interactions were nonsignificant. Some subjects made an error-like reverse-order response on the double-response task. The present findings do not support Klein's findings or the competition explanation of the Stroop effect.     

Perception in consequences of free riding

This study examined the relationships between perceptions of group members' free riding and group outcomes using Mulvey and Klein's 1998 perceived free riding scale. In a laboratory study, three free riding conditions were created (no free riding, free riding, free riding with justification) in which 97 college students performed two short number-finding tasks as members of temporary ad hoc three-person groups. 55% of the students were male and the average age was 22.9 yr. (SD= 3.0). Participants' perceptions of free riding were negatively related to commitment to the assigned group goal, task performance, and goals for group performance and individual performance. In the condition wherein free riding was justified by low ability, participants set lower goals for their future task performance than did those in the other two conditions.     

Probing distractor inhibition in visual search: inhibition of return

The role of inhibition of return (IOR) in serial visual search was reinvestigated using R. Klein's (1988) paradigm of a search task followed by a probe-detection task. Probes were presented at either the location of a potentially inhibited search distractor or an empty location. No evidence of IOR was obtained when the search objects were removed after the search-task response. But when the search objects remained on, a pattern of effects similar to Klein's results emerged. However, when just the search-critical object parts were removed or when participants received immediate error feedback to prevent rechecking of the search objects, IOR effects were observed only when probes appeared equally likely at search array and empty locations. These results support the operation of object-based IOR in serial visual search, with IOR demonstrable only when rechecking is prevented (facilitating task switching) and monitoring for probes is not biased toward search objects.     

'Projective transidentifi cation': An extension of the concept of projective identifi cation

Questions about the concept of projective identifi cation still persist. The author presents the following hypotheses: Klein's traditional view and Bion's extension and revision of it can be thought of as occupying a continuum in reverse. He postulates that Bion's concept of communicative intersubjective projective identifi cation (which the author renames 'projective transidentifi cation') is primary and inclusive of Klein's earlier unconscious, omnipotent, intrapsychic mode but includes Bion's 'realistic' communicative mode as well. The author hypothesizes, consequently, that intersubjective projective identifi cation constitutes both the operation of an unconscious phantasy of omnipotent intrapsychic projective identifi cation solely within the internal world of the projecting subject-in addition to two other processes: conscious and/or preconscious modes of sensorimotor induction, which would include signaling and/or evocation or prompting gestures or techniques (mental, physical, verbal, posturing or priming) on the part of the projecting subject; followed by spontaneous empathic simulation in the receptive object of the subject's experience in which the receptive object is already inherently 'hard-wired' to be empathic with the prompting subject.     

The contribution of Kleinian psychotherapy to the treatment of a disturbed five-year-old girl and her family

The theories of Melanie Klein are incorporated into many family therapy 'models' in regular use, although a detailed understanding of these theories is not an essential part of the repertoire of family therapists. In the present case, however, Klein's theories provided essential insight into the personality development of a five-year-old girl with severely disordered behaviour, as well as a foundation for the treatment offered to her and to her family.     

The super-ego, the voice of the self and the depressive position

The Freudian concept of the super–ego and Jung's idea of a primary moral reaction in the unconscious – the voice of the self – are compared. From its origin the superego is connected with human destructiveness, but for Jung individual conscience is based on a collision between the ego and the inner world of archetypes. With reference to Neumann's 'New Ethic', some implications of Jung's idea of the unconscious ambiguity of good and evil are discussed. Finally an attempt is made to relate the concept of the primary moral reaction to a developmental and clinical framework, notably Klein's depressive position, but only a partial integration is possible.     

Wild analysis

Contemporary debates over psychoanalytic theory and practice warrant a reconsideration of the concept of wild analysis. Freud's initial formulation of the problem, subsequent developments in the Freudian conventions, and the work of Melanie Klein, Kohut, and Gill are compared in order to bring out different conceptions of interpretation that is wild, sound, or too tame. These different conceptions are system-bound. Moral implications of Klein's, Kohut's, and Gill's critiques and alternative systems are taken up.     

Winnicott, Balint, and the Independent Tradition

This article compares and contrasts two main aspects of the work of Winnicott and Balint: their theories of infantile development and their theoretical and clinical work on the use of regression as a therapeutic agent. The relationship of their thinking to aspects of the British Independent Group's theories and clinical work is noted vis-à-vis the basic acceptance of classical theory and technique, acknowledgment and use of some of Klein's contributions, the influence of trauma and the external environment on psychic development and psychopathology, the importance of holding and the setting, and the reintegration of previously split off and lost parts of the self.     

The envious will to power

Envy, from Klein's perspective, is an inherent hatred of goodness that seeks to destroy love, creativity, and life itself. Devoid of constructive value, envy becomes an evil to be restrained or renounced, rather than a potential to be understood or developed. Confusion with evil can be avoided if envy is seen as a defence against the impact of 'otherness' and the greatness of 'others' rather than an inherent hatred of goodness. From this perspective envy emerges as a desperate attempt to preserve one's unique sense of self against the terror of non-being.