The mother’s mental representation of her infant

Abstract

The mother’s intrapsychic mental representation of her infant begins before pregnancy and is modified during pregnancy and thereafter. Parents have conscious expectations and unconscious fantasies about their infant, which are all too often not consistent with reality. Early intervention in infant–parent disturbances is important for repair of the relationship and prevention of later pathogenic development. A clinical example of a mother’s unconscious ambivalent mental representations of her infant is presented.     

Welcome to “Parent–Infant Disturbance: Theory and Therapy”

Abstract

The initiator of the conference and (together with Sophie de Mijolla-Mellor) conference co-chair, Harold Blum, introduces the objectives of the interdisciplinary and psychoanalytic conference on “Parent–Infant Disturbance: Theory and Therapy.” In the epilogue, the author brings up the coincident Paris terrorist attack of November 13, 2015 – the first day of this two-day conference.     

No Turning Back

ABSTRACT

It has been 16 years since the publication of my article, “Infertility in the age of technology: From frozen sperm to egg donation.” Today I would title it simply “Fertility in the age of technology.” In that article, I presented Diana, an analytic patient in her middle forties, who became a mother through implantation of a donor egg. Her journey to parenthood was fraught with physical and emotional trauma partly as a result of ever more high-tech and invasive treatments. The purpose of my 2000 article was to discuss the anxieties that the then new biotech treatments caused for both patient and analyst. I stated, “What makes this unique for the analytic process is that we analysts must confront our own anxieties and the underlying fantasies stimulated by the new procedures at the same time as we are helping our patients analyze theirs. Patient and analyst alike become inextricably linked in an exploration that will ultimately have a profound impact on both participants. Regardless of theoretical position, we become a part of the process, willingly or not” (Blum, 2000, p. 1543). Now, in this article, I look beyond the consulting room. I reflect upon the relationship between societal influences and technological advances and their integration into psychoanalytic theory.     

The STEPPS Group Treatment Program for Outpatients with Borderline Personality Disorder

The authors describe a new cognitive-behavioral systems-based group treatment for outpatients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). The program is identified by the acronym STEPPS, which stands for Systems Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving. The STEPPS program was developed to address the cognitive distortions and behavioral dyscontrol typical of clients with BPD, and combines this with skills training and a systems component. The latter involves clients with BPD and those in their system including family members, significant others, and health care professionals. The program is fully manualized, and involves 20 two-hour weekly group meetings; specific goals (or lessons) are identified for each session. Preliminary data from the US and the Netherlands have shown that the group achieves high levels of acceptance from clients and therapists and that the model may be effective in helping to relieve the symptoms associated with BPD. Work is now underway to confirm the effectiveness of the model through a randomized controlled trial.     

The reconstruction of reminiscence

The lifting of repression and of infantile amnesia was an original aim and goal of clinical psychoanalysis. Memory may be more or less reliable and authentic. However, it tends to be subjective, self-serving, and selective, and there are different memory modalities and systems. The recovery of repressed childhood memory has been largely subsumed under the analysis of unconscious conflict and fantasy. "Hysterics suffer mainly from reminiscences," and these reminiscences interweave with and contribute to reconstruction, which is intrinsic to psycho-analysis. Memory and reconstruction are subject to the influence of special interests, transference, and countertransference. Since open questions remain concerning preoedipal, and particularly preverbal, reconstruction, external confirmation may further both the analytic process and analytic research. The process of reconstruction integrates and transcends memory, facilitating personality reorganization.