Child versus adult psychoanalysis: Two processes or one?

Child analysis continues to be seen as a different technique from adult analysis because children are still involved in a developmental process and because the primary objects continue to play active roles in their lives. This paper argues that this is a false dichotomy. An extended vignette of the analysis of a latency‐aged girl is used to demonstrate that the psychoanalytic process that develops in child analysis is structurally the same as that in adult analysis. Both revolve around the analysis of resistance and transference and use both to promote knowledge of the patient’s mind at work. And both techniques formulate interventions based on the analyst’s appraisal of the patient’s mental organization. It is hoped that stressing the essential commonality of both techniques will promote the development of an overarching theory of psychoanalytic technique.     

The family myth: its deconstruction and replacement with a balanced humanized narrative

Abstract :  According to Carl Jung the mythopoeic activities of the collective unconscious contribute to the trajectory of personal individuation ( Segal 1998 ). The 'family myth' represents an imaginal narrative that emphasizes the importance of the family's founders, its collective values, and its position with respect to 'outsiders'. Sigmund Freud identified the importance of the Oedipal myth as the basis of nuclear family dynamics ( Rudnytsky 1992 ); however, the 'myth of the family' represents in reality a 'family of myths', each emphasizing different elements of potential interpersonal dynamics. But whereas some myths foster the child's optimal separation from parental influence and promote the process of individuation, others tend to hinder development.
One potentially deleterious form of the family myth tends to serve the narcissistic wishes of parents in their bid to maintain influence over the child by fostering the archetypal features of their role. The children who are the targets of the myth are thwarted in their psychological development by virtue of the fact that they are denied the opportunity to humanize their archetypal projections onto their parent(s). The result is a persistence of childlike attitude with respect to people and situations that they encounter outside the nuclear family. The persistent constellation of the child archetype is evidenced by features of the puer aeternus, with deficits in the ability to work, form stable adult relationships, and create a separate nuclear family. The significance of this type of family myth in the inappropriate preservation of puerile attitudes is examined and the desire of the offending parent(s) to promote their own immortality is explored. The contribution of the myth to the transference and transference resistance is explicated and suggestions are offered with respect to how to approach this critical issue in analysis.     

Transferences Toward the Co-Therapist Couple: Triadic Relationships and Selfobject Needs

This paper examines transferences toward the male/female co-therapists within a developmental context, using concepts from self psychology, intersubjectivity, and infant research. In addition, it proposes that some individuals have selfobject needs specifically related to the parental unit, so triadic relationships can influence one's development. Clinical examples elucidate the repetitive and selfobject dimensions of the transferences within the intersubjective field formed by the triad of a patient and the male and female co-therapists.     

Don't get stuck in the mother: regression in analysis

This paper was part of an afternoon workshop on regression. It re views the author's recollections of her own analysis and clinical work with the purpose of discovering the sources of her own ideas on regression. Two specific forms of regression are then delineated – negative therapeutic reaction as described by Rosenfeld and 'umbilical transference' as a possible future development.     

Destructive and reparative transference in multiple levels of group psychotherapy

Group members are challenged to form psychologically meaningful relationships with therapists, other members, and the group as a whole. The way in which individuals perceive this challenge is based on their past experiences. Early relationships establish a perceptual frame in which fears of being hurt and concern about hurting others coexist. Balance between these two ways of generating meaning enables individuals to form relatively healthy relationships. Imbalance in this perceptual frame results in distorted perceptions and maladaptive patterns emerging as transference manifestations. Working through involves repeatedly addressing distortions as members relate to therapists, others and the group as a whole.     

Transference and dream in illness: waxing psyche, waning body

In times of change, crisis, and illness, the excited points of an individual's personal history are reactivated within the transference and may also be noted by observing countertransference. When there are anomalies in the emotional and imaginal circle of the therapeutic relationship, there is occasion for repetition and/or a transformative opening. In some cases, there is simultaneous treatment of severe developmental fixations and compulsions, and issues of individuation. Images may emerge both from the personal field and from the collective and archetypal imagination. These may be expressions of interpersonal experience, intrapsychic dynamics, and physical as well as psychic state.     

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.     

How Does Change Occur Within the Psychoanalytic Encounter?

On November 6, 2002, Dr. James Fosshage delivered the following talk at a Clinical Training Conference held at the Blanton-Peale Institute. The Clinical Training Conference at Blanton-Peale provides experiential and conceptual resources to support the therapist-in-training in the context of his/her professional identity. The training conference is attended by candidates of all phases of the Psychoanalytic Program, the Pastoral Psychotherapy Program, and the Marriage and Family Program, as well as faculty members, administrators, staff, and interns of the institute. The residents were asked to review three articles written by Dr. Fosshage in preparation for his presentation: Toward Reconceptualising Transference: Theoretical and Clinical Considerations, International Journal of Psycho-Analysis (1994) 75 (2): 265–280; Countertransference as the Analyst's Experience of the Analysand: Influence of Listening Perspectives, Psychoanalytic Psychology (1995) 12 (3): 375–391; and Listening/Experiencing Perspectives and the Quest for a Facilitating Responsiveness, Conversations in Self Psychology: Progress in Self Psychology, (1997) 13: 33–55.     

Incest in Jung's work: the origins of the epistomophilic instinct

In this paper the differences between Jung's and Freud's writings on incest are explored. Jung's view is that the purpose of the child's sexual interest, as expressed also in his incestuous longings, is not purely the satisfaction of the biological instinct but is more importantly seen to be the development of thinking. The importance of the incest taboo for analytic work and the dangers of enactment of the erotic transference-countertransference dynamics are highlighted.