Psychoanalytic Theory

Three main functions of external reality (E.R.) relative to the subjecto may be mentioned. a) it is a source of stimulae that promote the structuring of te psychic apparatus. In this sense, E.F. is the place where this apparatus is charged and where it is discharged (specific action). b) it is a vehicle of gratification or frustration of necessity (AnakÈ). The satisfaction of necessity is gratifying, the lackof it is frustrating. c) it is the instance that heals or makes a person ill acording to its possibility of gratifying or frustrating the subject respectively.

At the beginning of the twentieth century Freud and Pavlov made complementary theoretical splits in their observational field. This splitting initiated a dialectical interaction that tended to polarize the Freudian mental world of insight and the psyche against the Pavlovian outer world of learning theories and the soma. The 1950s saw an exaggerated polarization between strict behaviorists and "classical" psychoanalysts. The linkage of ideas of therapeutic action with metapsychology also dates from Freud and is briefly illustrated.

In the first part Freud's clinical theories and models and the ego psychological theory were described from which ensues a general pattern of objective relations. The second part of the paper attempts a synthesis of the most important psychoanalytical theories, the creation of a uniform model of psychic functioning using an epigenetic pattern. The author analyzes in more detail developmental trends of these mental functions which are considered in psychoanalysis decisive for adaptation.

The intrapsychic processes underlying the phenomenology of PTSD symptoms appear to derive their fate from the states of consciousness at the time of traumatic experiences. The operative mechanisms of consciousness-condensation, avoidance of censorship, representability, and secondary revision-are the elements of trauma work as they are of dream work. These mechanisms establish an ever-present dynamic mental state of space consciousness, which is defined as an essential component of mental activities.

The paper discusses a variety of perspectives of psychoanalytic psychosomatics in the past, the present and the future. An epigenetic model of scientific development is introduced and developmental strains in psychosomatic medicine are evaluated according to the claims of the bio-psycho-social model. In historical terms, the psychological dimension of psychoanalytic psychosomatics has been the first strain to be elaborated; it is being extended still.

The diversity of theories regarding children's development is commensurate with the enormity of the task of seeking ordering designs for explaining behavioral and psychic ontogeny in infants, children, and adults. The purpose of this paper is to look at these developmental theories as epigenetic stages themselves. I shall suggest that the next stage in the epigenesis of theories of development is to see variability and disorder on a continuum with order and stability, as a constant dialectic that moves development along, whether at the level of the cell or at the level of fantasy.

With the help of attachment theory and research, the paper attempts to broaden and build on classical and current views on the superego. Attachment theory's epigenetic approach and the concept of the subliminal superego are described. The superego, it is argued, is as much concerned with safety as sex. The superego is 'heir', not just to the Oedipus complex or Klein's pre-oedipal constellation, but also to the attachment relationship.

This paper is written from a psychodynamic clinician's perspective, juxtaposing a psychoanalytic-attachment model of depression with recent developments in neuroscience. Three main components of the attachment approach are described: the role of loss, of childhood trauma predisposing to depression in later life, and failure of co-regulation of role of primitive emotions, such as fear, despair, and helplessness. Blatt's distinction between anaclitic and introjective depression is delineated and related to hyper- and de-activation of the attachment dynamic.

This paper traces the transformation of narcissism, paralleling the transformations of object love, occurring between early and late adolescence. Narcissism is examined in terms of three lines of development: erotic self-love, omnipotence, and the regulations of self-esteem. The transition occurs relatively rapidly in most normal and psychoneurotic individuals and involves a massive reorganization of the psyche. The acquisition of a body image of an adult sort probably acts an organizer. A normal consequence is the first romantic love relationship.

Freud saw war as the prevailing of death over love, this being a metapsychological concept whose roots lie in the dynamics of urges within the individual and civilisation in general. In his opinion, this dialectic tension could not be overcome. Reich noted that the analytic theory was in conflict with practice. Freud's premisses concerning the philosophy of civilisation and their implications have been taken up by Marcuse, who solves the conflict between the love-death urges by treating work as reduced to love or a game, in which death is merely the negative to be overcome.