Brief psychotherapy for unresolved grief in an 82-year-old-man

This man experienced in old age the torment that occurs when early fantasies that underly anxieties are enacted in real life. His elderly wife, when she became confused, ordered their son to drive him from the marital home. When the wife died, the son kept the news from the husband until after the burial. These acts created in reality the fantasy of a reversed oedipal situation, with the son succeeding as a competitor for his father's wife. If the father had resolved his own oedipal strivings satisfactorily, presumably he would not have feared such competition. But there seemed to have been some early environmental failure that had prevented him from integrating in the process of maturation his own wishes for his mother and his fears of his father. Yet, despite the patient's advanced years, the early failure situation seemed to fade as he used the therapy not only to work through his grief, but also as an opportunity to experience anew in the transference a more facilitating environmental adaptation to his needs.     

The Freudian construction of sexuality: the gay foundations of heterosexuality and straight homophobia

In developing his theory of male sexual preference, Freud asserted that heterosexual as well as homosexual preferences required explanation, that neither could be assumed to be innate. His theory of the oedipal complex, however, held that the heterosexual outcome was the "normal" resolution, while the homosexual outcome represented arrested sexual development. In the normal resolution the boy identifies as a male with the father, gives up the mother as a love object, and later substitutes another woman of his choice for the mother. The author of the following article, following the theorizing of Laplanche, claims that there is an unavoidable homosexual component or residue in the heterosexual resolution which is implicit in Freudian theory. In the resolution of the complex the boy has the choice of both parents as love objects or as persons with whom to identify. In the heterosexual resolution the boy identifies with the father as a rival for the mother's affection. But love and identification are not entirely discrete processes. The identification with the father involves love for the father. The heterosexual resolution of the oedipal conflict is bought at the price of the homosexual resolution which, however, is not completely surrendered. The homophobia of heterosexual males, the author asserts, is the result of the remnants of homosexuality in the heterosexual resolution of the oedipal conflict.     

Some thoughts on the ego ideal. A contribution to the study of the "illness of ideality"

Man searches continuously for the time when he was his own ideal--a time that is coincident with primary fusion with the mother. The fantasy of this fusion underlies the incest wish. Because of his helplessness, the child must postpone the realization of his incest wish and project it forward into the future. However, if the subject chooses the pathway of the oedipus complex and identification with the father to realize his incestuous fantasy, circumstance may lead him to circumvent the oedipal shpere and, through the mechanisms of regression, return to the mother of primary fusion. As in Aesop's adage, the ego ideal is at the source of the best and the worst of things.     

Roald Amundsen--a study of personality

Roald Amundsen is the most famous of the Norwegian polar explorers. His ancestors came from a group of islands south-east of the Oslofjord. From being fishermen and sailors, they progressed to becoming captains and shipowners in the course of two generations. Amundsen's father, Jens, stayed at sea until his ship went down with all the crew. Roald was 14 years of age at the time, the youngest of four competing brothers. Jens had left the close-knit local family community before that, and bought a flat in the capital, Oslo, so that his sons could get a better education. Roald's mother wanted him to study medicine. He did as she wished for a time, but was not at all interested. When his mother died, he abruptly left the university and went to sea, which had been the tradition in his family for decades. As a young boy he was an admirer of Sir John Franklin and his explorers of the Northwest Passage. Fridtjof Nansen became his ideal. The biographies about Roald Amundsen are very diverging--some hold him a hero, others reflect a strongly critical attitude. Here, the author tries to define his personality and places him firmly within the narcissistic domain. His tendency to seek the company of married women, but to take immediate flight when they really became interested reflects an Oedipus complex from before puberty. The tragic death of his father, the sea captain, may have been a supposition; puberty can be seen as a period of coping with ambivalence towards an earlier idealized father. His genius combined ambitious goals with a sharp eye for details as regards the equipment used in his expeditions. In his travels in the Arctic and the Antartic he was driven forward by the energy of the nation. His heroic death, trying to save his earlier "enemy", Nobile, was probably caused by an urge for self-destruction.     

The draining fantasy in male schizophrenics and in normal Sambia males.

Demonstrates that the draining fantasy (DF, the association of semen with milk and the fear of being drained of this "semen/milk" during intercourse) exists both in some male schizophrenics and in normal men of the Sambia tribe in New Guinea. The multiple causes of the DF are elucidated. For male schizophrenics, the DF is traced to oral trauma and fixation, impaired self-other boundaries, and sexually-tinged narcissism. For Sambia males, the DF is traced to an oral fixation stemming from early overgratification and to desires and fears of being re-engulfed by the mother. The DF among the Sambia is also fueled by male narcissism and castration fears. Although the Sambia occupy a higher developmental level than schizophrenics (roughly narcissistic to oedipal, as compared to early oral to narcissistic, respectively), there is sufficient overlap between the groups to account for manifestations of the DF. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Freud, father, and mother: Quantitative aspects.

The frequency with which Freud used father and mother in his psychological writings was investigated. Overall, he used father much more frequently than mother. This difference began with those writings that followed his father's death and his self-analysis. A most striking, though transitory, reversal followed immediately upon the death of his mother. The data suggest that Freud blended objective, scientific, and sublimated, personal issues in his parental psychology. An ancillary result shows the yearly creation of the pages of his psychological writings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Problems in falling in love

Certain patients enter psychoanalysis because of their inability to love another person. Often they report a repetitive erotic pursuit of desired partners, without being able to experience or maintain loving feelings. Kernberg has understood such difficulties as representing effects of early narcissistic disappointments and/or of difficulties in resolving oedipal conflicts. In this paper, Lacanian concepts of the mirror phase and symbolic love are employed to develop these issues. Sexualization of problems in mirroring may be fused with oedipal conflicts in some cases. An extended vignette is presented to illustrate the technical and theoretical issues.     

Suicide in the Bible from the current psychodynamic viewpoint. "There Saul took a sword and fell upon it"

After a short introduction to psychoanalytical interpretation of literature in general and in the Bible, the stories of Samson and King Saul are examined on the basis of modern psychoanalytical aspects of suicidology (narcissistic theory, object relation theory, self psychology). Samson's beginning is hallmarked by the uncertainty of his parents, their megalomanic fantasies which are projected on the child. His relationships are characterized by violent emotions, intensive conflicts on intimacy and distance and also raging anger at insults and privation. In his suicide he fuses himself with the highly ambivalent primary object and destroys it at the same time he destroys himself. People with narcissistic personality are considered to be extremely suicidal especially in combination with the destructive potency of narcissistic anger.     

Violence in the family: An act of loyalty?

Contends that loyalty to one's parents is important to the understanding of and the intervention in the handing down of unresolved problems from one generation to another, particularly with respect to family violence. Two case studies are presented of (1) an adult female who, beaten during childhood by an authoritarian father, gave up her false parental loyalty and (2) an adult female, with an incestuous father and a sadistic, psychotic mother, who could not give up her loyalty to her mother. It is suggested that the major therapeutic task is to help the client come to terms with the fact that the abuse was not because of any intrinsic flaw and see the parent as both good and bad. Techniques include letting the client see the therapist as mostly "good" but sometimes "bad," relabeling the client and the client's family system, dispelling old shameful feelings related to victimization, and enabling the expression of anger. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A case of distal 9q trisomy syndrome associated with an unusual inheritance of ABO blood type

A male infant with distal 9q trisomy syndrome associated with an unusual inheritance of ABO blood type is reported. His clinical features were concordant with those of distal 9q trisomy syndrome. His karyotype was 46,XY, -10, +der (10) t(9;10) (q22.3;q24.3) confirmed by G-banding and high resolution methods. His father had the balanced translocation t(9;10) (q22.3;924.3). He had a blood type of AB, despite his father's blood type of AB and his mother's blood type of O. The gene of ABO blood type is located at 9q34.1-q34.2. Therefore, he would have received A and B type alleles from his father. 9q trisomy syndrome should be carefully investigated with ABO blood type.     

Lesbian homoerotic transference in dialectic with developmental mourning: On the way to symbolism from the protosymbolic.

This clinical study illustrates the developmental nature of homoerotic transference, when the psychoanalyst is attuned to the evolving dynamics of the mourning process, in this case with a lesbian analysand. The analysand's psychic fantasies of the female analyst as a muse and a demon lover figure are seen to transform into discrete mother and father transferences, as split off feminine and aggressive parts of the self are reintegrated along with heterosexual desires and oedipal desires. Protosymbolic enactments in terms of romantic gift giving and other seductive overtures transform into symbolic expressions of love, concern, regret, and tenderness. A lesbian marriage is preserved, and the loss of intimacy with men is mourned so that desires for intimacy with men can be sublimated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Horizontal transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 from father to child

An unusual case of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection in a child was studied. The child, identified as HIV-1 infected at 5 years of age, lived with his parents and a 3-year-old sister. HIV-1 infection was excluded in the mother and sister, but confirmed in the father, who was unaware of his infection and was in good health, apart from an atopic dermatitis on the face and limbs. A portion of the HIV-1 proviral envelope gene was amplified from the father's and child's peripheral blood cells, and the amplified products were cloned and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis disclosed that the father's and child's viral sequences clustered together, and were clearly distinct from the sequence sets obtained from six epidemiologically unlinked mother-child HIV-1-infected pairs included in the analysis. HIV-1 variability was lower in the child's sequence set than in the father's, and the variability between father's and child's sequences was significantly lower than that found between epidemiologically unlinked cases (p < 0.001). An uncommon APGR motif on the tip of the V3 domain was found in both the father's and child's viral clones. These data, together with the epidemiological investigations, strongly suggest that the child acquired the infection from his father, possibly by exposure to bleeding skin lesions.     

Punishment fantasies and the construction of reality.

The internalizations comprising the conscience are not a mere representation of what to expect of one's self and the environment. Such internalizations serve to relinquish incestuous object choices and derivatives and to undo and redirect dangerous hostile, competitive impulses. These internalizations are comprised of self and object-representations that are actively induced and reconstructed in the world. Further, such internalizations are organized sado-masochistically and function as a sort of normative perverse structure, reinforcing narcissistic fantasies of omnipotent control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The phenomena of police fantasies, leg fetish, and father identification in a homosexual male

TOPIC: The relationship of police fantasies and leg fetish to identification with the father in a homosexual male. PURPOSE: To describe two manifestations of identification with the father in a male homosexual. SOURCE: The author's clinical work. CONCLUSION: It is important to decode current behavior in light of theory and past history, to help clients move from potentially destructive behavior to satisfying interpersonal interactions.     

A special oedipal mechanism in the development of male homosexuality.

A special oedipal mechanism in the development of homosexuality in high functioning neurotic men—the plicate Oedipus complex—is described, in which the father serves simultaneously as both the object and the prohibitor of erotic excitement in the oedipal-age boy. This mechanism, it is argued, replaces the more widely recognized negative and positive oedipal mechanisms and functions correspondingly in superego formation and general psychosexual development. The consequences of the plicate Oedipus complex for the homosexual male are described in terms of later sexual behavior, interpersonal relations, superego functioning, and transference paradigms. Guidelines for psychoanalytic therapy with homosexual men are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychoanalytic treatment of narcissism.

This paper discusses the need for change in emphasis from metapsychological debate to a sharp clinical focus on the complex nature of narcissistic pathology. Narcissism is viewed as a dimension of psychopathology found at all levels of psychic functioning, at the core of which are characteristic ego and superego deficits around self-cohesion, self-continuity, and self-esteem regulation. It is argued that, if the definition of conflict is not viewed too narrowly, traditional Freudian or ego-psychological techniques are applicable and that the treatment of narcissism does not require a new theory, separate from that of object relations. Clinical material is presented to illustrate that all psychological phenomena are over-determined and contain aspects of unresolved preoedipal and oedipal conflicts. There are critical selfhood aspects at each stage of development which must be understood and interpreted, in addition to the traditional structural conflicts. It is stressed that highly developed skills in listening and in interpreting are required in order to discern the narcissistic and object-relations aspects of the clinical material and that the countertransference around the analyst's own narcissism needs particular attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Daniel J. Levinson (1920–1994).

Memoralizes the life of D. Levinson as the originator of the theory of individual life structure. His dissertation on the measurement of ethnocentrism was followed by his book, The Authoritarian Personality which was the most widely acclaimed social science work of its time. Levinson follwowed up his authoritarian studies with further research on personality, shifting his attention to the role of personality and organizational contexts. During the final era of Levinson's academic career he made a radical change in research direction to the study of the adult portion of the life cycle. His Seasons of a Man's Life became the scholarly anchor of a new preoccupation in western societies with problems of creative work and creative loving after youth. Immediately following this publication, he began a companion study of women documented in The Seasons of a Woman's Life (in press). Despite Levinson's wide range of interests and his influence, there is a consistent focus to his work: that of "person-in-world." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empathy in young children: Relation to parents' empathy, affection, and emphasis on the feelings of others.

Explored the relation between (a) the young child's empathy and (b) the parents' self-reported empathy, affection, and emphasis on another individual's feelings in discipline and nondiscipline situations. Ss were 25 boys and 28 girls in preschool and kindergarten classes in a middle-class community. Heightened empathy in 4–6 yr old girls was associated with a particular (i.e., sex-stereotyped) pattern of mother–father empathy. The factors believed to enhance the development of empathy were reported to be more prevalent in the mother's interaction with the child than in the father's. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Significant prognostic factors in breast cancer of Japanese women: special reference to nuclear grade and sinus histiocytosis

Progress of psychotherapy and of related behaviour sciences makes evident the importance of a better understanding of human relations. But psychoanalysis finds it hard to describe interpersonal processes without transference. In order to remain within the conceptional frame of metapsychology it has to see interaction between individuals as the oral, aggressive or sexual cathexis of an object or as satisfaction or denial of the subject by the object. The structure of the "ego", which--in analogy to medical thinking--is conceived as an organ with its functions, is considered to have no interpersonal activities. The "ego" of the classic psychoanalytic theory is chiefly occupied with itself. It has to care for its egoistical interests and to guarantee its self-preservation. As an auxiliary and meanwhile popular concept the "self" has been introduced to describe object-relations. This concept is not sharply defined. Due to its metapsychological implications it produces additional theoretical difficulties. Linguistic studies show that every inventory of words implies a certain insight into reality. For this reason the metapsychological machine-like concept of psychic structures does not permit new ideas about interpersonal relations. If we leave metapsychology and base on colloquial speech we see that the experience of "I" is much more related to persons than the rather autistic concept of the "ego" shows. Further we learn that self-preservation cannot be an egoistical interest; it depends on the attachment to others. All feelings of self-esteem depend much more on interpersonal relations than on "narcissistic regulations". From these experiences three conclusions are derived: a) One of the main qualities of the ego is the relatedness to persons. b) The concept of narcissistic regulation as a successor of primary narcissism is no longer useful. Narcissistic traits develop as the secundary compensations if the individual failed to build up satisfactory interpersonal relations. c) The revision of (a) ego-psychology and (b) theory of narcissism asks for modifications of the therapeutic technique, where now the interest is especially concentrated on interpersonal problems instead on the pathology of the ego.