Reapproaching Mahler: new perspectives on normal autism, symbiosis, splitting and libidinal object constancy from cognitive developmental theory

Margaret Mahler's seminal work on the psychological birth of the infant has generated more critical discussion than most other psychoanalytic theories of early development. But while the empirically, theoretically, and methodologically based criticisms of Mahler's theory are generally justified, her critics fail at times to consider some of the intriguing and creative insights that her theoretical formulations tried to capture. This paper attempts to reformulate these insights using the new conceptual tools that current cognitive developmental theory provides. Mahler's stage of normal autism is reconsidered in the light of contingency detection theory as an initial phase of primary preoccupation with self-generated perfectly response-contingent stimulation. Her concept of normal symbiosis is recast with the help of attachment theory's views on homeostatic regulation and the social biofeedback model of affect-reflective mirroring interactions with parents. Finally, her ideas about the development of splitting and libidinal object constancy are reconsidered according to recent theories of early representational development and mentalization.     

Analyse critique des approches de l’acceptation des technologies : de l’utilisabilité à la symbiose humain-technologie-organisation

This article proposes a criticism of the concept of technology acceptance. Starting from a distinction between operational and social acceptance, the authors present an overview of the concepts and notions associated to the paradigm of technology acceptance. Then, they criticize the paradigm and propose the idea that human and technologies are connected by interactions that are so narrow that one can refer to human-machine symbiosis, as Licklider (1960) suggested. The first part of the paper is devoted to the various ergonomic aspects of the operational acceptance (usability, ergonomic criteria, model of the interaction) while the second part addresses the psychosocial aspects of acceptance (Technology Acceptance Model, User Information Satisfaction Theory, Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory, Agile Organizational Development…). The idea behind the authors’ point of view is that technology must not inevitably be thought of as a foreign thing that the human must accept or refuse. From a metaphorical point of view, technology is more and more part of ourselves and behaves like a symbiont. From the time human and technologies start to form coherent and linked units, the relation between human, technology and organization can be apprehended according to a symbiotic approach which considers that human and technologies are connected by strong dependent relationships. In short, this article proposes to consider that the concept of symbiosis is more capable to explain the relationships of human with technology than the acceptance concept.     

Mahler's concepts of "symbiosis" and separation-individuation: revisited, reevaluated, refined

Mahler's developmental theories are reviewed in the light of subsequent clinical experience and theoretical and empirical critique. Several modifications are proposed, each tending to particularize and focus the nature and scope of developmental events. Particular attention is accorded the "symbiosis" concept, and focus placed on transmission of psychodynamic issues from mother to infant and on the progressive buildup of self-sustaining pathological systems. Overall, an argument is advanced for the continued developmental import of Mahler's "symbiotic" and "separation-individuation" phase formulations, though with recognition of significant individual differences in their role in individual lives. An argument is advanced also for the clinical utility of these ideas, and illustrations presented, though the link between clinical applications and psychoanalytic theories of early development remains problematic.     

Separation-individuation and cognition

Through direct observation of infants and mothers in an "experimental" nursery, Mahler and her associates have accumulated data which when analyzed point to distinct phases (stages) during the long process of the development of the concepts of self and object. These phases, autism, symbiosis, and separation-individuation (itself subdivided into four subphases, differentiation, practicing, rapprochement, and consolidation of individuation) correspond well with the stages described by Piaget as constituting the period of cognitive growth described as sensorimotor intelligence. The intercorrelation of the phasic development along these two separate lines (objectal-affective and cognitive), expectable as it may be, is of considerable interest as it underlines the intrinsic strength of the psychoanalytic concept of the object. Furthermore, this intercorrelation enhances and enlarges our understanding of the process of consolidation of self and object during the first years of life.     

Chiasm and hyperdialectic: re-conceptualizing sensory deprivation in infancy

The literature on sensory processing disorders in institutionalized infants highlights the impact of early deprivation on infant perception. Through a Merleau-Pontian, hyperdialectic analysis of the extraordinary development of infant perception under circumstances of severe deprivation the intimate link between environmental affordances and perceptual systems becomes apparent. This paper offers an updated reading of Merleau-Ponty’s late work as a philosophy of systems (“structures”, “forms”, “gestalts”, as he called them) and outlines some fertile philosophical concepts and methods developed by Merleau-Ponty in The visible and the Invisible. Merleau-Ponty’s concept of the chiasm, understood from a systems perspective, and his method of the hyperdialectic are applied in a child case study of an infant who suffered severe neglect in a Romanian orphanage.     

Commentary on Paper by Julie Gerhardt

This review discusses factors producing excessive envy in some personalities innate, environmental and developmental. He agrees with Julie Gerhardt that envy is not atomic but molecular and evoked in triangular situations. However he suggests that factors that may manifest themselves in the earliest infantile stage can contribute to its later development and agrees with Gerhardt that the earliest mother infant interaction is crucial.     

When everything new is well-forgotten old: Vygotsky/Luria insights in the development of executive functions

The concept of "extra-cortical organization of higher mental functions" proposed by Lev Vygotsky and expanded by Alexander Luria extends cultural-historical psychology regarding the interplay of natural and cultural factors in the development of the human mind. Using the example of self-regulation, the authors explore the evolution of this idea from its origins to recent findings on the neuropsychological trajectories of the development of executive functions. Empirical data derived from the Tools of the Mind project are used to discuss the idea of using classroom intervention to study the development of self-regulation in early childhood.     

Balint's Influence on Contemporary Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice

Invited by the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center in New York to lecture on my book Michael Balint: Le renouveau de l'Ecole de Budapest, Toulouse, Erès 2000, I first gave my personal and analytic motivations for writing this book. Then I stressed Balint's original contributions to analytical theory and practice: the object relation combined with the theory of instinct, the development of the infant, adolescent and even of old age, the basic fault, archaic defenses (such as ocnophilia and philobatism), as well as his idea about analytic treatment with its phases of regression and "new beginning". His style and his discretion in treatment and mainly the responsibility he recommended to the analysts seem to me very important not to forget. I have shown him as Ferenczi's heir and how he continued his work. His clinical approach and his style are evoked to alert contemporary analysts--who sometimes just know his method to train general practitioners through the Balint group--that they have been influenced unbeknown to them.     

An Expanded View of Intersubjectivity in Infancy and its Application to Psychoanalysis

We consider the relevance of forms of intersubjectivity in infancy to the nonverbal and implicit dimension of intersubjectivity in psychoanalysis. The term forms of intersubjectivity, within the adult explicit and implicit modes and the infant presymbolic implicit mode, is offered to clarify the multiple meanings of intersubjectivity. The ideas of infant intersubjectivity of Meltzoff, Trevarthen, and Stern that have particular relevance for psychoanalysis are highlighted: the dialogic origin of mind, the role of correspondences, and the idea that symbolic forms of intersubjectivity are built on presymbolic forms. We build on their work to define a fourth position: that the full range of patterns of interactive regulation provides the broadest definition of the presymbolic origins of intersubjectivity, with correspondence being only one of many critical patterns. We additionally address the place of interactive regulation, problems with the concept of matching, the role of self-regulation, the role of difference, and the “balance model” of self- and interactive regulation. We take the position that all forms of interactive regulation are relevant to the possibility of perceiving and aligning oneself with the moment-by-moment process of the other. A broadened understanding of intersubjectivity in infancy sets the stage for a more fruitful exchange between infant researchers and psychoanalysts.     

John Watson's paradoxical struggle to explain Freud

John Watson was fascinated by the discoveries of psychoanalysis, but he rejected Freud's central concept of the unconscious as incompatible with behaviorism. After failing to explain psychoanalysis in terms of William James's concept of habit, Watson borrowed concepts from classical conditioning to explain Freud's discoveries. Watson's famous experiment with Little Albert is interpreted not only in the context of Pavlovian conditioning but also as a psychoanalytically inspired attempt to capture simplified analogues of adult phobic behavior, including the "transference" of emotion in an infant. Watson used his behavioristic concept of conditioned emotional responses to compete with Freud's concepts of displacement and the unconscious transference of emotion. Behind a mask of anti-Freudian bias, Watson surprisingly emerges as a psychologist who popularized Freud and pioneered the scientific appraisal of his ideas in the laboratory.     

Expressive development and basic emotions

Abstract

One important emotion theory currently postulates an innate tie between specific infant facial expressions and a set of discrete basic emotions. The arguments and evidence relevant to this assertion are reviewed. New data are presented from a naturalistic study of one infant's early expressive development and a judgement study of infant facial, vocal, and body activity. These data challenge the innate tie hypothesis. Based on dynamical systems systems theory, an alternate conceptual framework is presented that may allow us to usefully retain the concept of basic emotions while accommodating the data on infant expressive development.     

《易传》天论的哲学意义--兼论中国哲学有没有哲学概念

"天人关系"是中国哲学的基本问题,这一基本问题在<易传>中表现得比较典型.<易传>之"天"概念蕴涵自然、自然规律、义理、天帝、阳气等数重内涵,逻辑内涵混杂,外延不确定.中国哲学之"天"从未获得"纯粹的哲学形式",天不是一个纯粹哲学概念,只是一个前哲学概念.实际上,气、道、理等中国哲学主干概念具有同样的哲学性质.学术界有必要共同讨论一个问题中国有哲学概念如何可能?     

Notes on the Superego

The idea of the superego emerged late in Freud's conception of countercathexis or counterwill. It was preceded by censorship and the ego ideal, the latter of which later became associated with the newfound superego. Freud believed that the superego emerged as the resolution of the Oedipus complex. Klein, though agreeing with Freud, also uncovered the origin of the archaic superego in the early oral stage owing to projective identification of aspects of the infant into its image of the mother, which is then introjected and installed within the infant's internal world. The epigenesis of the superego, from the Kleinian point of view, enters into a transformation from a harsh, punitive, and retaliatory superego in the paranoid-schizoid position to a more forgiving and helpful one in the depressive position. The author suggests that there is such a thing as a “triune superego,” much like the Christian trinity, in which there are representations of the infant, the mother, and the father. Pathologic retreats constitute a default superego that vies with a normal superego.     

SHALL WE DANCE? MUSIC AS A PORT OF ENTRANCE TO MATERNAL–INFANT INTERSUBJECTIVITY IN A CONTEXT OF POSTNATAL DEPRESSION

The present study introduces the concept of a mother–infant group therapy that makes use of music, singing, and moving to establish maternal–infant intersubjectivity. It was conducted in a residential mother–baby unit for mothers with postnatal depression and their infants over a 5‐week period. Maternal–infant intersubjectivity of four dyads in relation to the group dynamics were microanalyzed for Sessions 1 and 5. We made within‐session (i.e., beginning–middle–end) and between‐session (Session 1 vs. Session 5) comparisons for the number of intersubjectivity moments (ISMs), total time of intersubjectivity (IST), and the mean duration of ISMs on a dyadic (i.e., own mother/infant involved) and a nondyadic level (i.e., own mother/infant not involved). In addition, three ISM levels (degree of group contribution) were distinguished. The results indicated a significant increase of ISMs/IST from Session 1 to Session 5. Within‐session analyses showed that ISMs/IST significantly decreased through Session 1 and remained stable throughout Session 5. Intersubjectivity occurred mainly on ISM Level 1 during Session 1 and on ISM Level 3 during Session 5, suggesting increased dyadic autonomy and self‐efficacy. The results are discussed in relation to the musical characteristics of mother–infant dyads, music improvisation techniques, group processes, and intersubjective development.     

Symbiosis,Empathy, Suicidal Behavior,and the Family

ABSTRACT: This paper discusses the theoretical concept of symbiosis, as described by Mahler and her co-workers, and its clinical applications in suicidal situations. Symbiosis is defined as both a developmental phase characterized by a lack of differentiation between self and others and a relationship which is contingent upon the family and social network. A disturbed symbiosis is a major component in a suicide attempt. The destructive aspects of symbiosis are traced together with its relationship to empathy and the efforts to both restore and resolve a symbiotic conflict through suicidal behavior. In family therapy a repetition of older symbiotic relationships is frequently observed. These are repeated from one generation to the next in order to keep the old relationship alive. Finally, the practical implications of the concept of symbiosis for assessment and treatment are discussed.     

Overcoming Relativism? Levinas's Return to Platonism

Emmanuel Levinas's concept of "the face of the Other" involves an ethical mandate that is presumably transcultural or, in his terms, "precultural." His essay "Meaning and Sense" provides his most explicit defense of the idea that the face has a meaning that is not culturally relative, though it is always encountered within some particular culture. Levinas identifies his position there as a "return to Platonism." Through a careful reading of that essay, exploring Levinas's use of religious terminology and the (some-times implicit) relationships of the essay to the work of other phenomenologists and of Saussure, the author seeks to clarify (1) what Levinas retains and what he rejects in returning to Platonism "in a new way," (2) the sense in which this return constitutes an "overcoming" of relativism, and (3) the nature of the phenomenological warrant that he offers for his position.     

Modelling the stages of the identity theory of object-concept development in infancy

A computational model is presented for the three stages of development of the object concept in infancy identified by Bower and Wishart in their research. The stages are described by sets of PROLOG clauses that interpret object structures representing the perceptual phenomena interpreted by the infants themselves. The infant's changes between developmental stages can be described by differences between the rules modelling each stage. Three experiments are presented and the behaviour of the PROLOG model is described for each stage of development. Motion, rest, and boundedness of objects constitute the theoretical underpinning of the running PROLOG model and are hypothesized as the invariant aspects of perception that explain the behaviour of the infant at each stage of development. A possible explanation for transitions between stages is offered and justified in part by the output of the model, which in turn is used to predict the behavioural outcome of an experiment.     

The interaction approach to early intervention

A brief summary of research, supportive of the idea that quality of parent-infant interaction has a powerful effect on infant development, introduces an early intervention model based on that proposition. Also, central to the interaction model is the knowledge that (1) parent and infant both contribute to what happens between them and that (2) a multitude of factors, environmental and internal to parent and infant, affect the parent, the infant, and their interaction. Ten sets of principles and strategies that convey the essence of the interaction model constitute the core of this article. The principles and strategies address the importance of identifying sources of support and stress in the family, of developing relationships with both parents, and of supporting positive interactions between parents and the infant's siblings. The limitations of this model are also addressed, especially in cases where the parent is the primary risk factor. The infant's exposure to nurturing adults in quality day care programs and a more clinical approach with the parent and infant, such as Selma Fraiberg's model, may be more effective with such families.