Psychological Trauma in Adolescence: Familial Disillusionment and Loss of Personal Identity

This article presents trauma theory and characteristics of traumatized adolescents. A case vignette demonstrates the considerations regarding assessment and treatment strategies in clinical work with an adolescent girl who suffered profound trauma, loss of personal identity, and self-esteem due to familial disillusionment. In contrast, the author presents the case of a female Holocaust survivor, documenting catastrophic loss, also during adolescence. Irrespective of the nature and magnitude of trauma, the single most outstanding predictor of future positive adjustment and resilience was the nature of the parent-child tie.     

温尼科特的精神分析客体关系理论的治疗观

温尼科特是英国精神分析客体关系学派的重要代表人物,提出了独特的精神分析治疗观,以提供抱持性的分析情境为核心,强调退行至依赖的治疗过程,重视精神分析师的反移情中的恨的情绪体验,珍视病人的主动不交流等,在很多方面颠覆了经典的精神分析治疗观。     

Winnicott's children: The holding environment and therapeutic communication in brief and non-intensive work

This paper discusses brief and non-intensive work using a Winnicottian framework for understanding the processes involved. The importance of play, communication and interpretation are considered within the careful establishment of a unique holding environment for each patient. Parallels are drawn with ordinary development and care of the infant and young child. Two clinical examples are given to illustrate these concepts. The first describes the treatment of parents and children following the accidental death of the youngest child, and the second describes time-limited work with a sexually abused and abusing teenage boy. The value of providing a range of psychoanalytic treatments to meet the range of needs of patients is discussed. The importance of conceptualizing such treatments in ways that do not imply that they are ‘diluted’ psychoanalysis is also stressed, particularly with a view to the increasing pressure on therapists to offer help to as many children as possible within limited treatment time.     

Winnicott's invitation to ‘further games of Jung‐analysis’

Winnicott signs off his celebrated review of Jung's (1963) autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections with the warning that translation of ‘erreichten’ as ‘attained’ (implying assimilation) rather than as ‘reached to’, could ‘queer the pitch for further games of Jung‐analysis’. This subtly underscores his view that Jung—who he described earlier as ‘mentally split’ and lacking ‘a self with which to know’—remained essentially dissociated. However, Winnicott, whilst immersed in this work on Jung, wrote a letter to Michael Fordham describing himself as suffering ‘a lifelong malady’ of ‘dissociation’. But this he now reported repaired through a ‘splitting headache’ dream of destruction, dreamt ‘for Jung, and for some of my patients, as well as for myself’ (Winnicott 1989, p. 228). Winnicott's recurrent concern during his last decade was with ‘reaching to’—that quintessential Winnicottian term—some reparative experience that could address such difficulties in constellating a ‘unit self’. This is correlated with his engagement with Jung and tracked through his contemporaneous clinical work, particularly ‘Fear of Breakdown’ (1963). Themes first introduced by Sedgwick (2008) and developed by the author's earlier ‘Winnicott on Jung; destruction, creativity and the unrepressed unconscious’ (2011) are given further consideration.     

Contemplating spiritual experience: Winnicott's potential space,Tibetan bardo,and liminality

Abstract

In this paper, ways of contemplating and accommodating the unfamiliar, especially the “other” of spiritual experience, are considered. Some concepts from psychoanalysis, such as Winnicott's “potential space” and his notion of “holding,” are helpful in comprehending spiritual experiences that can easily be misunderstood, or “flattened out” to use Bion's phrase. Interesting and rather remarkable confluences in these concepts from psychoanalysis and from Tibetan Buddhism (bardo) and cultural anthropology (liminality) are considered in their functions of both enabling and comprehending these extraordinary and often life-enhancing experiences.     

Winnicott's splitting headache: considering the gap between Jungian and object relations concepts

This paper examines some difficulties inherent in the process of integration of potentially divergent theoretical positions. It is noted that there is an increasing tendency toward integration of Jungian theory with various models from psychoanalysis and other scientific disciplines. This trend can be understood as relating to the larger post-modern current operating in the scientific and cultural communities. As an element of the Zeitgeist, theory integration can proceed with a lack of critical stance on the process itself. An argument is developed on theoretical grounds for urging caution in the implementation of theory integration. The integrative process is examined using dream material from D. W. Winnicott in conjunction with his review of Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Through this discussion, some implications are examined as to the viability of linking Jungian and developmental models.     

Destruction reconceived: On Winnicott's ‘The Use of an Object and Relating through Identifications’

‘The Use of an Object and Relating through Identifications’ is a landmark contribution that I find very difficult to write about because so much of what lies at its core is merely suggested. It is necessary for the reader not only to read the paper, but also to write it. In my reading/writing of the paper, the mother becomes real for the infant in the process of his actually destroying her as an external object (destroying her sense of herself as an adequate mother), and his perceiving that destruction. She also becomes a real external object for the infant in the process of his experiencing the psychological work involved in surviving destruction, a form of work that does not occur in the world of fantasied objects. The analyst or mother may not be able to survive destruction. It is essential that the analyst be able to acknowledge to himself his inability to survive and, if necessary, to end the analysis because of the very damaging effects for both patient and analyst of prolonged experience of this sort. The author presents clinical discussions of analyses in which the analyst survives destruction and is unable to survive destruction.     

Winnicott's dream: some reflections on D. W. Winnicott and C. G. Jung

The author discusses D. W. Winnicott's 1964 review of C. G. Jung's autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, emphasizing the psychological effect the reviewing process had on Winnicott himself. Writing the review constellated Winnicott's unconscious, and he reported having a healing dream 'for Jung and for some of my patients, as well as for myself'. Winnicott's 'countertransference' to Jung helped him personally, and the review was Winnicott's first written formulation of his theory on 'The use of an object'.     

‘Though he slay me,yet will I trust in him’: a critical reconstruction of Winnicott's theory of value

This paper extrapolates an outline for a theory of value from Winnicott's reflections on war in ‘Discussion of war aims’ (1940). The author treats Winnicott's discussion as an occasion for a critical reconstruction of his theory of life‐values. He discerns an implicit set of distinctions in Winnicott's reflections on war, including different orders of value (existential, ethical, and psychosocial); a distinction between maturity and necessity; and a yet more fundamental distinction between violence and brutality. The paper argues, on the basis of these distinctions, that Winnicott allows for an understanding of one's encounter with the enemy as an ethical relation. The main argument of the paper is that the ethical attitude underpins recognition of the enemy's humanity. On a more critical note, the author argues that Winnicott doesn't adhere consistently to the ethical attitude he presupposes, that in certain passages he privileges the maturity of combatants over the humanity of the enemy.     

The name of the Piggle: Reconsidering Winnicott's classic case in light of some conversations with the adult ‘Gabrielle’

On the 40th anniversary of its publication, the author re‐reads Winnicott's The Piggle – a case of ‘on demand analysis’ with a child suffering from psychotic night terrors – in light of new information about the patient. Conversations between the author and ‘Gabrielle’ explore two areas not regarded as priorities by Winnicott: the transgenerational transmission of pathology/trauma, and the ways that language, in general – and given names, in particular – organize individual subjectivity. The question raised is to what degree Winnicott – who described the treatment as “psychoanalysis partagé [shared]” due to the parents’ involvement – thought of the pathology itself as ‘shared.’ The goal is not to supplant but to expand Winnicott's understanding of the case, borrowing insights from the work of Lacan and others.     

Transition and transience: Winnicott on leaving and dying

The author offers reminiscences and reflections on Donald Winnicott during the last phase of his life and considers the personal and theoretical importance for him of the topic of death. The author goes on to examine similarities and differences between Winnicott's concepts of coming into being and ceasing to be.     

Shame,Ministry, and Theological Education: Leaves from the Notebook of a Defiant Seminarian

Many young adult Christians are highly influenced by relativism of all sorts, which can lead them to a state of doubt. If they voice their doubts too loudly, they are often shamed and abandoned by their elder Christians who do not have (or, perhaps better, do not voice) these doubts. I suggest that those of us involved in youth ministry must meet our youth where they are at, that is, meet them in their doubt, which is not, in my view, a bad place to be. This article focuses on a psychoanalytic understanding of shame and draws from the work of Donald Capps, Erik H. Erikson, Heinz Kohut, and D. W. Winnicott.     

The Early Marital Roots of Conjugal Distress and Divorce

This article summarizes research that challenges conventional wisdom about the early roots of marital distress and divorce. We abstract results from a 13-year study that focused on the extent to which long-term marital satisfaction and stability could be forecast from newlywed and early marital data. We explore the usefulness of three models emergent distress, enduring dynamics, and disillusionment designed to explain why some marriages thrive and others fail. The dominant paradigm, the emergent-distress model, sees newlyweds as homogeneously blissful and posits that distress develops as disagreements and negativity escalate, ultimately leading some couples to divorce. The results we summarize run counter to this model and suggest instead that (a) newlyweds differ considerably in the intensity of both their romance and the negativity of their behavior toward one another and, for those who remain married, these early dynamics persist over time; and (b) for couples who divorce, romance seems to deteriorate differently depending on how long the marriage lasts. Soon after their wedding, "early exiters" seem to lose hope of improving an unpromising relationship; "delayed-action divorcers" begin marriage on a particularly high note, yet quickly show signs of disillusionment. These delayed-action divorcers reluctantly give up on the marriage long after the romance has faded.     

Functional magnetic resonance imaging activation in response to prompts of romantically disillusioning events

To differentiate romantic disillusionment from similar constructs of dissatisfaction and regret, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data obtained when romantically involved individuals (N = 39) were reminded of relationship events representing these emotions were analyzed. Whole‐brain activations suggested disillusionment‐linked processes not observed for dissatisfaction or regret. Compared to dissatisfying events, disillusioning ones showed greater activity in regions pertaining to evaluation, reflection, and reconciling conflicting information (e.g., anterior cingulate cortex). No regions showed significantly more activation for dissatisfying than disillusioning events. Compared to regret‐inducing events, disillusioning events showed greater activation in areas thought pertinent to detail processing and decision making (occipital fusiform and lingual gyrus). Regret‐inducing events activated regions suggesting the planning and thoughts of how one could have acted differently (e.g., prefrontal cortex).     

A comparison of concepts in self-psychology and Winnicott's theory of the development of the self

The humiliation and traumatization of political opponents during periods of violent and non-violent conflict can create deadlocked situations with great potential for regression, and may serve to aggravate the conflict or escalate the level of violence. In this article, I will examine this type of regressive dynamic. My point of departure is the current terror situation and the “war against terror” as it is being conducted in different parts of the world. The key concepts in this connection are violations of human rights, victim psychology, group processes and the development of regressive group identities. Political-ideological-religious discourses can serve to mediate between collective unconscious fantasies and the actual misery/humiliation experienced at group and individual levels. They can reinforce an identity as victim, and the significance of this identity is often underestimated when the background of terror and violent conflicts is being analysed.     

Dissociation,the true self and the notion of the frozen baby

Abstract

The widespread ‘trauma talk’ that is prevalent in the social sciences, has, in recent years, become increasingly commonplace in psychoanalytic writings, especially in attachment theory and relational psychoanalysis. This paper examines dissociation, a key concept in ‘trauma theory’, in conjunction with the Winnicottian term ‘true self’, in the context of a particular discursive and theoretical combination of the two. This discursive formation is named ‘the frozen baby discourse’, and it is presented and analysed. A critique is offered of the way ‘true self’, understood as a humanistic concept, is often used together with dissociation, in order to create a theoretical construct that is far removed from Winnicottian theory. This paper begins by exploring definitional issues, both around dissociation and ‘true self’. It is subsequently argued that this contemporary usage of ‘true self’ in combination with dissociation has important implications for psychoanalytic practice.