Journal articles on the topic 'Paranoid-schizoid position'

The potential for psychological transformation is fundamental to psychoanalytic theory and therapy and to Jewish belief and practice. While Freud's rejection of religious experience as a manifestation of personal and cultural pathology had a long-reaching effect in the history of psychoanalysis, the theoretical extensions and advances of some of his followers have made it possible to view religious experience through a different lens. The author explores the convergence of Jewish ideas about the process of repentance (teshuvah) and the integration of psychic polarities conceptualized in the psychoanalytic literature, namely, love and hate in the shift from the paranoid-schizoid to the depressive position (Klein) and separation and reunion in the establishment of the self and the development of sublimation (Loewald).

The article describes the process of symbol formation from the point of view of psychoanalytic theory. The author considers verbal and pre-verbal thinking and connects these two types with the process of symbol formation. The model of thinking proposed by W. Bion is taken as a foundation. The subject's ability to symbolize is characterized as inherent in a developed mental apparatus with a verbal type of thinking. Thinking is understood as the process of formation of mental elements from the processed somatic experience. Through the concept of object relations the author shows the difference in the functioning of thinking in a paranoid-schizoid and depressive position. The author introduces the concept of containerization and clarifies the difference between the mechanisms of normal and pathological projective identification, which the subject uses in a paranoid-schizoid position instead of repression. It is pointed out that the excessive use of pathological projective identification makes it impossible to develop thinking and symbol formation. The author defines the ability of the subject to endure frustration as the primary condition for the development of thinking. The secondary is the successful communication between a mother and an infant contributing to the infant's introjection of the maternal alpha function. This allows the mental apparatus to develop and makes it possible to acquire verbal thinking, to transit to a depressive position and to use symbols as products of mature symbol formation. The symbol is understood as a verbal form for somatic experiences, while the symbol does not have the characteristics of the original object. The author demonstrates, that in the early stages of development, the subject does not use the symbolization inherent in verbal thinking, but symbolic equalization, in which no distinction is made between the object and the symbol. Verbal thinking is considered as related to the acoustic remnants of words that are transmitted by the primary object due to the alpha function. In the early stages of development and in the case of a violation of symbol formation, subjects do not use symbols that are containers for somatic experiences, but pre-verbal and pre-symbolic elements. The author concludes that the process of symbolization underlies the development of the mental apparatus.

When reading the mythology of Persephone, Demeter, and Artemis from the perspective of ecopsychology, the meanings of natural disasters like the 2011 Japan Earthquake, followed by the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Disaster, are revealed in depth. The mythology of Persephone and Demeter provides an idea of the object relation between an individual life (bios) and life in general (zoë). Harold F. Searles analyzed the relation between environmental crisis and technology. The problem of externalization of developmental anxiety of the paranoid-schizoid position has been pointed out by Carl Jung, Wolfgang Giegerich, and Brigitte Egger in terms of unconscious acting out of mythology. In the history of science, epistemology of the notion of nature has been centered around the aphorism of Heraclitus: ‘Nature loves to hide’. As Jung presented an idea of psychoid unconscious, we need to find the secret of nature within the mystery of being.

Fifteen pages of unpublished Notes were found in the Melanie Klein Archives dating from early 1934, a crucial moment in Klein's development. She was at this time, 1934, moving away from child analysis, whilst also rethinking and revising her allegiance to Karl Abraham's theory of the phases of libidinal development. These Notes, entitled ‘Early Repression Mechanism’, show Klein struggling to develop what became her characteristic theories of the depressive position and the paranoid-schizoid position. Although these Notes are precursors of the paper Klein gave later to the IPA Congress in 1934, they also show the origins of the emphasis she and her followers eventually gave to ‘splitting’ rather than repression. The Notes give us an insight into the way that she worked clinically at the time. We see Klein's confidence develop as she diverged from the classical theories and technique. Her ideas were based on close attention to the detail of her clinical material, rather than attacking theoretical problems directly. The Notes show her method of struggling to her own conclusions, and they offer us a chance to grasp the roots of the subsequent controversy over Kleinian thought.

The experience of working with chronic trauma in the framework of children’s psychodrama, which allows exteriorization, acting out and understanding of internal drama in the external space of group play interaction, is presented in the article. The dynamics of roles and game behavior of a 10-year-old girl with communicative, cognitive and psychosomatic difficulties is traced and analyzed. The content of 13 psychodramatic sessions is presented. The observed evolution is considered from the point of view of Melanie Klein’s theory in terms of the development of elements of the depressive position against the background of the predominance of the paranoid-schizoid platform, the microdynamics of fluctuations between these two positions and their consequences for the experience of the “I” and the object. Gradually, the group’s work has seen a reduction in the manifestations of anxiety and the need to protect against a dangerous, intruding and attacking world. There has been a transformation of the security object, acceptance of a state of scarcity, easing control over the object, acceptance of the connections of dependence, compassion and reparation, although the period of 13 meetings was not sufficient for permanent changes, which led to pronounced fluctuations in the prevailing position. The conclusion is made about the importance and fruitfulness of timely psychological work with the consequences of chronic traumatization, despite the apparent “normativity” of the child, the adaptability of his seemingly normal part of the personality.

This paper describes ten hours of music therapy work with a twelve-and-a-half-year-old girl, giving specific details of the process of events during sessions and the development of the therapeutic relationship. Central to the therapist's thinking about the work was the notion of the client's struggle between wanting, but being unable to bear, good feelings, and not wanting, but needing to hold on to, bad feelings. Turning good feelings into bad, in order to feel in control, was a predominant theme. The therapy was carried out within a broadly psychodynamic theoretical framework, with particular reference to the work of Melanie Klein in relation to the processes of splitting within the ‘paranoid-schizoid’ position (Klein 1946). The paper also refers to Anne Alvarez's notions (1992) of the importance of the aspirational aspects of play and the anticipation of identification with a ‘good object’, and thus, the possibility of reparation. This article is based on a paper presented at the first National Conference on Music and Disability, Maynooth, Republic of Ireland, in 1994.

Traditional psychoanalytic theories of development hold that the adult neurotic can regress, or has already regressed, to the childhood arrests and/or fixations in which his pathology originated. More recent critiques have called this possibility into question. It is unlikely that anyone can roll back the additions and modifications of lifespan development in a full-fledged return to the needs, wishes, and anxieties of childhood. By regression, though, some analysts mean not a full-fledged return to an earlier developmental phase, but a non–phase-specific slip into primitive fantasies and defenses. The operational term, in this particular variation, is not regression but primitive. The shift from the depressive to the paranoid-schizoid position is, for instance, considered not a phase-specific regression but a regression to primitive forms of mentation. The psychoanalytic conception of the primitive originated in Freud’s reading of late nineteenth and early twentieth century anthropology. Freud and later Klein believed that the neurotic regresses to a psychological childhood, which in turn preserves the thought patterns of our prehistoric ancestors. Although this proposition and the underlying principle of recapitulation have been disproven, its traces are nonetheless preserved in what are termed the primary processes and primitive defenses. A tradition of theoretical critique and developmental research, however, shows that the primary processes and primitive defenses are not in fact primitive. That is, they are neither evolutionarily nor developmentally primary in human life. By implication, psychoanalysis should discard the term primitive and adopt a lifespan approach to the processes it describes.

The paper discusses the reasons why conspiracy theories emerge (the desire to belong, survive, be close with the members of the group, and maintain a positive image of ourselves and the community). Theories and results of research about psychological factors that are believed to influence the emergence of conspiracy theories are presented. The authors conclude that belief in conspiracy theories is highly dependent on epistemological, existential, and social motives. Research has not yet shown that these theories serve to satisfy these motives, and it is even possible to the contrary, that these theories do not strengthen social cohesion at all, do not lead to improvement of self-esteem and a more positive image of ourselves or the group we belong to. Important questions remain open and more research needs to be done about the consequences of believing in conspiracy theories, especially in vulnerable populations, which have been found to have the highest motivation to accept these theories. The tendency to believe in conspiracy theories is a phenomenon influenced by many factors. Some of these factors are belonging to a lower socio-economic background, a lower educational level, a tendency to outsource one's own responsibility for life's failures, or to neglect the genetic and educational factors that led to it. However, many other factors, such as mental health status, also determine this phenomenon. Poorly integrated, deeply insecure personalities who have not overcome the schizoid-paranoid position of development, tend to perceive the environment as perceptual and threatening, with the aim to protect their own self from deeper disintegration.

Aim. The paper will revisit nature of symbolization in depressive position with respect to its realization in external reality. Base for the analysis will be Hanna Segal paper Delusions and artistic creativity: some reflections on reading “The Spire” by William Golding (Segal, 1974/1988), enriched with findings she presented in her later paper Acting on phantasy and acting on desire (Segal, 1992/2007), context for the analysis will be provided by Kleinian psychoanalytic framework.
 Methods. Psychoanalysis core interest is thinking and thought formation. In the paper I will try to move this emphasis on examining pure thinking into exploration of mixture that thought and action create. I will therefore analyse on what tokens mind content can be put into action, and conversely how action is being incorporated into thought. I will perform the study using Hanna Segal interpretation of The Spire by William Golding, which she issued on 1974. I will also reach out to her other papers to broaden the interpretation, including the paper she wrote almost twenty years later on Festschrift for her colleague, philosopher Richard Wollheim (Segal, 1992/2007), that actually proposes the solid linkage between thinking and its expressions in the world. The study will be performed with reference to Kleinian psychoanalytic framework, it will be centred around object relation and anxieties the object arouses (paranoid schizoid and depressive positions), with respect to their impact on thought formation (symbolization, sublimation).
 Results and conclusions. Analysis of relationship between symbolisation and action enhances understanding of two main responses to depressive position: sublimation and maniac defences, for it explores the extent to which ego benefits/refuses to benefit from internal and external reality. While the rereading Segal interpretation of The Spire allows to spot how creative act enables capturing most difficult internal and external truths, it also reveals – when put in context of Wollheim’s concept of acting on phantasy and acting on desire- that maniac response is less a form of protection and more a direct attack on receptivity and penetrating exploration for their associations to primary scene.
 Cognitive value. Studying depressive symbolization as a vehicle for acting on either phantasy or desire reveals, that employment of behavioural component forces to revisit maniac defences in light of their actual aftermath in external world. Such refined view onto depressive defences further contributes to improved differentiation of symbolization in depressive position, for it puts under scrutiny relation between ego and performed action. It allows to recognize that in addition to symbol proper (formed by anxiety for object) and symbolic equation (defined by anxiety of object), there is also partly malformed form of symbol shaped by maniac defences (and so by absence of anxiety for object), which disfiguration is best examinable in changes to external reality it makes.

Dolgozatunkban különbözo pszichológiai gondolatrendszerek keretében próbáltuk meg értelmezni a prousti önkéntelen emlékezés pillanataihoz kapcsolódó jellegzetes idoélményt, melynek során a fáradtság vagy rossz közérzet nyomasztó állapotában egy apró, jelentéktelennek tuno érzékletes inger hatására váratlanul újra megjelenik egy régi élmény, megdöbbento élességgel, túláradó örömérzet kíséretében. Proust olyan kiváltságos pillanatokhoz vélt jutni az önkéntelen emlékezés által, melyekben a múlt tapasztalatai a tudatos én és a tudatos emlékezet szelektáló és torzító hatásait megkerülve tárulnak fel. Ezáltal az önkéntelen emlékezet a dolgok valódi, állandó természetét mutatja meg. Kohut értelmezésében a prousti idoélmény, melyben az elbeszélo szinte egy idoben él át két, idoben nyilvánvalóan távol eso pillanatot, azért jelentos, mert bizonyítékot szolgáltat az írónak folytonos, történetiséggel bíró pszichológiai létezésérol, s ezáltal ingatag selfjének koherenciáját erosíti. Sands szerint Proust éppenhogy egy töredékes, ámde szélsoségesen pozitív self-érzést próbál visszanyerni, mely az idealizált anyával való szimbiotikus kapcsolathoz tartozik, s az anya halála után csak az önkéntelen emlékezés révén élheto újra. Chankin a híres madeleine-epizódból kiindulva az önkéntelen emlékezést, s a belole eredo asszociációfüzéreket, a traumatikus gyermekkort elrejto fedoemlékek feloldási kísérleteként értelmezi, mely az író azon alapvetobb törekvésébe ágyazódik, hogy múltja igazságainak felkutatásával megszilárdítsa identitását. Magunk próbálkoztunk meg a prousti idoélmény Melanie Klein elmélete alapján történo elemzésével. Ebben a keretben az önkéntelen emlékezést olyan átmeneti és részleges regresszió révén kialakult állapotként ismertük fel, melyben egy pillanatra újra feléled az idealizált résztárgy és az örömteli részén primitív, preverbális, a paranoid-szkizoid pozíciónak megfelelo élménye, s a valóság aktuális, tudatos észleletével interferálva kompromisszumképzodményt hoz létre. Swartz új szempontot vet fel, amikor a prousti idoélményt regresszív vagy közelpatológiás állapotok helyett a személyiségfejlodést, az önmegvalósítást elosegíto transzcendens élményekként értelmezi, melyek lehetové teszik, hogy egy másfajta tapasztalás szintjére lépve újszeru összefüggéseket tárjunk fel a világról és önmagunkról. Noha az elemzésekhez helyenként kritikai észrevételeket is fuzünk, nem vitás, hogy mindegyik releváns szempontokat tár fel az énélmény és az emlékezet összefüggéseirol.In this contribution we have tried to explain Proust's characteristic time-experience connected to the acts of involuntary memory, in the scope of different psychological theories. During moments in the depressing state of tiredness or discomfort unexpectedly an old experience comes back with shocking sharpness and a flood of joy elicited by an effect of a trivial, seemingly insignificant sensory stimulus. Proust thought that by involuntary memory he could obtain moments when past experiences revealed their truth avoiding the selection and distortion of the conscious ego and conscious memory. The writer believes that involuntary memory shows the real and permanent essence of things. According to Kohut's explanation the proustian time-experience in which the narrator feels himself in two chronologically distant moments at the same time is significant because it provides evidence about the historically continuous psychological existence of the writer, thus helps him to maintain the coherence of his weak self. Sands argues that Proust wants to regain a particular but extremely positive self-experience which belongs to the symbiotic relationship with the idealized mother, and which can be revived only by involuntary memory after the mother's death. Chankin takes the famous Madeleine-scene as a starting point and explains the involuntary memory and the association chains derived from it as an attempt to resolve the screen memory which hides the traumatic childhood. This striving is embedded in Proust's deeper endeavour to solidify his identity by exploring his real past. We have made our own effort to explain the proustian time-experience on the basis of Melanie Klein's theory. In this framework the moments of involuntary memory can be recognized as a partial and temporary regressive state in which the primitive preverbal experience of the relationship between the idealized part-object and the joyful part-self (which is a characteristic of the paranoid-schizoid position) revives for a moment and forms a compromise by interfering with the actual conscious perception of the reality. Swartz presents a new aspect since he regards the proustian involuntary remembering as a transcendent experience (instead of a regressive or near-pathological state) which advances the process of personality development and individuation by showing new relations of things and the perceiving subject from a different level of perception. While we made some critical remarks on the discussions, there is no doubt that all of them reveal relevant aspects of the relation between memory and self-experience.

BackgroundClinicians claim that partners in a couple can be understood to share a mode of relating, at an unconscious level. Assessment of this depends on inference from observable data. This study tests the viability and reliability of a modification of the Personal Relatedness Profile (PRP) for this purpose.AimsTo test the interrater reliability and construct validity of a joint PRP score for couples.MethodSeven therapists independently rated couples' interactions using the 30-item PRP and segments of videotaped interviews with 19 couples.ResultsInterrater reliability was good and correlations between items clearly supported the underlying Kleinian bipolar model used (paranoid–schizoid/depressive positions).ConclusionsPsychoanalytic couple psychotherapists agree in independent judgements of the nature of couple functioning, these judgements being based on envisaging couples in terms of an unconsciously shared state of mind.

AbstractObjective: The following case report describes a child with autistic symptoms who experienced early emotional deprivation and institutionalisation. The paper discusses her symptoms in relation to Melanie Klein's theories on object relationships.Method: LM was a four year old Rumanian adoptee, when she was first assessed by a child service in Dublin. On presentation, she exhibited a spectrum of autistic symptoms including an impairment in social interaction, absence of separation anxiety, poor attachment formation with others and restricted, repetitive, stereotyped patterns of behaviour. While attending the pre-school, she was involved in an individualised programme which focused on her specific needs.Result: After attending the pre-school programme, L exhibited a greater ability to express various emotions and her social interaction with others had improved, but she continued to have marked deficits in her personality. This child's symptoms are discussed with reference to the paranoid schizoid and depressive positions associated with ego development.Conclusion: By applying Melanie Klein's theories on object relations, one can gain a further understanding of a child's pathological symptoms, ego development and the necessary treatments required to improve these symptoms.

Because of severe early trauma experienced by one member of a married couple and the unresolved oedipal issues lingering within the other, maintaining a holding environment for both and moving them from the paranoid–schizoid position toward the depressive was nearly impossible at first. Once I became aware of how both partners, using projective identification, had put split-off parts of self into the other, and that the husband was having major dissociative episodes—for example, screaming, into the air, at his wife, and nearly everywhere—I could more readily see the pair as individuals and pick up the unconscious collusion between them as a couple who relied on primitive defences.

This article presents an eidetic investigation that aimed at the production of a narrativizing sense of the coexistence, which is presented as a humanistic contribution to the suturing of the conjunctural emptiness of it. For this, six eidetic dimensions were brought to the front that are part of the shared objective world, and therefore are repetitive structures that make up the underlying continuity of the interruption of coexistence, aspecting the latter. Such dimensions, in the mode of eidetic succession-tension between Apollo-Dionysus, rational thought-magic thought, paranoid schizoid position-depressive position, polis-urbs, death-birth and leisure-weariness, are made up of various eidetic conjunctions-disjunctions developed in the text, and they emerge from the continuity-dispute between images of the technical and psychic-cultural world with its correlative mass society and urban tribal society.

James Fisher's work on curiosity and the authors' own thinking in this area are described. Fisher's view of curiosity, as a genetic aspect of human nature, and as the essential driver causing the development of the mind and of consciousness, is restated. The focus of curiosity is emotion, and emotion is meaningful. Thus curiosity serves to represent symbolically the meaning of our experience. The authors agree with Fisher, Bion, and Britton that the impulse to curiosity stands alongside the impulse to pleasure, and that the tension between these two impulses affects and guides our psychological and emotional development. The fields of couple psychoanalytic psychotherapy and organisational consultancy are drawn on to demonstrate the centrality of curiosity and to indicate its essential role in the development of a creative couple stage of identity. The importance of anxiety in either stimulating or de-activating curiosity is described. The authors emphasise the balance between the pleasure impulse and the impulse to curiosity by showing that L and H can be seen as the former, while K pertains to the latter. Where anxiety closes down curiosity, it is argued that this is an example of L and H dominating K, and is another way to describe the paranoid-schizoid position.

The Integrated Executive Experiential Learning Coaching model was applied in an information technology organisation. The aim of the research was to analyse and interpret the experiences of seven executives in the form of written essays from the systems psychodynamic perspective. The manifesting themes were, experiential learning facilitates the working through of defences; interdependency facilitates taking responsibility for the self; flight reactions inhibit owning and learning; transcending defences is needed to authorise the self in role; the difficulty of moving from the paranoid-schizoid to the depressive position and valuing all parts of the self; and containment facilitates self-authorisation. Recommendations towards more effective executive coaching are presented.
 
 Opsomming
 Die “Integrated Executive Experiential Learning Coaching model�? is toegepas in ’n inligtings tegnologie organisasie. Die doel van die navorsing was om die ervaring van sewe uitvoerende beamptes in opstel-formaat te analiseer en te interpreteer vanuit die stelsel psigodinamiese benadering. Die manifesterende temas was, ervaringeleer fasiliteer die deurwerk van verdedigingsmeganismes; interafhanklikheid fasiliteer die neem van selfverantwoordelikheid; vlug reaksies inhibeer eienaarskap en leer; die transendering van verdedigings is nodig vir self outorisering; die moeisaamheid van beweeg vanaf die paranoide-skisiode na die depressiewe posisie en waardering van alle gedeeltes van die self; en behouering fasiliteer self-outoriteit. Aanbevelings vir meer effektiewe uitvoerende afrigting is aangebied.

This research explored the systems psychodynamic behaviour manifesting in the context of employment equity practices within three South African information technology organisations. In-depth interviews with the human resources practitioners involved, elicited seven themes around fantasies of power/opportunities, splits and defences, projective identification, paranoia, idealisation/competence, envy/guilt and coping styles. It was hypothesised that the experience around employment equity in these organisations got stuck in the paranoid-schizoid position, that the system was unconsciously colluding to keep the status quo, and that idealisation was projected on the white subgroup while denigration was projected on previously disadvantages employees and candidates. Recommendations for more optimal coping with these behaviours were formulated. Opsomming Hierdie navorsing het die sistemies psigodinamiese gedrag ondersoek wat gemanifesteer het in die konteks van gelyke indiensneming in drie Suid-Afrikaanse inligtingstegnologie organisasies. Indiepte onderhoude met die betrokke menslike hulpbron praktisyns het sewe temas na vore gebring wat insluit fantasieë oor mag/geleenthede, spleet en verdedigings, projektiewe identifikasie, paranoia, idealisering/kompetensie, afguns/skuld en coping style. Die hipotese is geformuleer dat die ervaring rondom gelyke indiensneming in hierdie organisasies vasgehak het in die paranoïde-skisoïde posisie, dat die stelsel onbewustelik saamsweer om die status quo te handhaaf, en dat idealisering geprojekteer word op die wit subgroep terwyl swartsmeerdery geprojekteer word op die voorheen benadeelde werknemers en kandidate. Aanbevelings oor meer optimale coping met hierdie gedrag is geformuleer.