Beyond the Symbiotic Orbit

Advances in Separation-Individuation Theory: Essays in Honor of Selma Kramer, MD

Salman Akhtar, Henri Parens, Salman Akhtar, Henri Parens

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780367606466
• eBook ISBN: 9781134881932
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Interpersonal Relations in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

In this tribute to Selma Kramer, eminent child analyst and colleague and close friend of the late Margaret Mahler, senior analysts explore the continuing relevance of Mahler's separation-individuation theory to developmental and clinical issues. Editors Salman Akhtar and Henri Parens have grouped the original contributions to Beyond the Symbiotic Orbit into sections that reevaluate Mahler's theory.

Section I is a timely reassessment of Mahler's working model from the standpoint of contemporary clinical and research findings. It includes comparisons of Mahler with Winnicott and Kohut, and commentaries on the status of separation-individuation theory in relation to psychosexual theory, early ego development, and observational infancy research. Section II addresses the contribution of separation-individuation theory to our understanding of pathogenesis. Neurosis, severe character pathology, psychosomatic phenomena, eating disorders, and sexual perversions are among the topics of specific chapters. The final section explores the role of separation-individuation theory in the treatment of analysands of different ages and with different kinds of psychopathology; it also considers separation-individuation theory with respect to specific aspects of the treatment process, including reconstruction, transference, and termination.

A fresh reappraisal of a major perspective on early development, Beyond the Symbiotic Orbit is a fitting testimonial to Selma Kramer, who has played so important a role in elaborating Mahler's theory. Following from Kramer's own example, the contributors show how separation-individuation theory, in its ability to accomodate ongoing clinical and research findings, is subject to continuing growth and refinement. They not only advance our understanding of Mahler's working model, but pursue the implications of this model in new directions, underscoring the many areas of exploration that separation-individuation theory opens to us.

Subject Index

A

Absence, 394

Abstract symbolization, 253

Academic developmental psychology, relationship to psychoanalysis, 121–122, See also Contemporary infant research

Active ego directed action, 313

Activity, infant, 138

Adaptation, Mahler’s study on, 45, 130

Adaptive child-mother interaction, 10, 15

Addictive disorders, 296

Adherence, fetishlike, 47

Adolescence, 5, 17, 189–190, 205

Blos’s conceptualization of, 195–200

closing phase of, 200

development of character and, 202–206

developmental crisis of, 194

early literature on, 190–191

eating disorders in, 287

later conceptualizations of, 191–195

oedipal conflicts in, 217–218

phases of, Blos’s view, 196

termination of, 198

terminology related to, 200–202

Adolescence proper, 196

Adolescent, quality of, 192

Adolescent crisis, final, 202

Adolescent individuation, 202

Adult

borderline pathology, 263

neurotic illness, infantile neurosis and, 228

object relationships, 9

Adult analysis, reconstructive data from, 162–163

Adult Attachment Interview, 127, 130

Adulthood, stages of, 7

Affect, 124

change in, 140

cognitive aspect of, 108, 110

combination of, 110

contemporary concept of, 112–113

derived, 109

development of, 79, 110–112

Emde’s view, 131

felt aspect of, 109

Freud’s concept, 108

frightening, 255

integration of, 110

maturation of, 109–110

memory organization and, 111–112

modulated stage, 113

organization of, disorder of, 96

as organizer of experience, 139–140

primary object, 234

primitive, 109

regulation, 79

role in early psychological development, 230

subjective aspect of, 109

transformation of, 110

unconscious, 108

Affect attunement, 129

Affect expressions, 140

Affect-laden issues, discussion of, familial avoidance of, 296

Affect state

low-level, 111, 113

peak, 111, 113, 114

Affect system, during somatopsychological differentiation stage of ego development, 93–94

Affective (emotional) object constancy, establishment of, Mahler’s view, 41

Affective development, 110–...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• The Prelude, or Growth of an Analyst's Mind
• Publications by Selma Kramer, M.D.
• Separation-Individuation Theory: Contrast, Comparison, and Update
• Separation-Individuation Theory and Psychosexual Theory
• Mahler and Winnicott Some Parallels in Their Lives and Work
• Mahler, Kohut, and Classical Analysts Theoretical and Clinical Considerations
• The Stages of Ego Development Implications for Childhood and Adult Psychopathology
• Some Comments on Early Development
• Contemporary Infant Research and the Separation-Individuation Theory of Margaret S. Mahler
• Psychopathology as Understood in the Light of Separation-Individuation Theory
• Contributions of Separation-Individuation Theory to the Understanding of Psychopathology During the Prelatency Years
• Transformations in Normal and Pathological Latency
• Separation-Individuation and Adolescence with Special Reference to Character Formation
• Adolescence, Sex, and Neurosogenesis A Clinical Perspective
• Neuroses and Separation-Individuation Theory
• Psychosomatic Phenomena
• Three Fantasies Related to Unresolved Separation-Individuation A Less Recognized Aspect of Severe Character Pathology
• Dyadic Psychopathology and Infantile Eating Disorder Psychoanalytic Study and Inferences
• Form and Function in Sexual Perversion A Contribution to the Problem of “Choice” of Perversion
• Treatment Implications
• Treatment of Psychological Disorders of Early Childhood A Tripartite Therapeutic Model
• Construction and Reconstruction, Semantics and Dynamics
• On the Treatment of Preoedipal Pathology
• Treatment Implications of Separation-Individuation Theory in the Analysis of Young Adults
• Termination and Separation-Individuation
• Author Index
• Subject Index