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)     

Review of Meeting Movies.

Reviews the book, Meeting Movies by Norman N. Holland (see record 2006-11509-000). Meeting Movies is a very personal book in which Holland discusses eight films that have been personally meaningful to him. These films are Casablanca, Vertigo, The Seventh Seal, Freud, Persona, Children of Paradise, Shakespeare in Love, and 8 1/2. Holland describes what he was doing with his life when he saw each of these films, and he discusses how each film affected his life and his career. Some of the movies were seen relatively recently, and some were first viewed over half a century ago. In reading the book, it becomes apparent that Holland loves films. Whenever text is in Roman type, Holland is operating in his reader-response critic mode, and the discussion reads much like any other film criticism. However, the most interesting parts of the book occur when Holland is in free association mode, writing about whatever thoughts the movie being discussed brings to mind. These instances are set off from the regular text by use of italicized text. In summary, Meeting Movies is a good read. Holland is well versed in psychology and especially psychoanalytic approaches, and his criticism of these eight films is consistently interesting. His willingness to self-disclose makes this book all the more fascinating. The book will be rewarding for anyone genuinely interested in the interface of psychology and film. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Editorial statement of the American Psychologist: II.

Editing a journal that combines professional, scientific, and public policy interests is a strange business, indeed. Although this January 1987 issue of the American Psychologist (AP) begins the second year of my editorship, it is the first issue that actually reflects my editorial input and that of my associate editors. This state of affairs results from both the usual 9- to 10-month publication lag and the normal transition process between two editorial terms. It seems worthwhile to use my "first" issue as an opportunity to comment on the editorial direction of the journal, about the editorial process itself (and some changes we have made in it), and about some specific modifications in format that you will see in coming issues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Editorial statement of the American Psychologist: III.

Presents an editorial statement about the publication policies of the American Psychologist (AP). About half the contents of the AP are documents that report on the activities of the Association—the minutes of the Council of Representatives, the address of the immediate Past President, and those reports of the Association boards and committees of concern to a large percentage of the membership. The remaining pieces are articles that the editorial board and the ad hoc reviewers judge to be of sufficient interest and consequence to appeal to the large and heterogeneous readership of the AP. These articles should explicitly address the broadest scientific and practical implications of the topic under consideration. In addition, a new series, tentatively called "Science Watch," will appear in the AP on an irregular basis. The purpose will be to cover articles that broaden our understanding of the discipline, that enable us to understand the connections between our discipline and others, and that help us glimpse the directions in which our science is moving. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary procedures for the American Psychologist.

This article describes the procedures for handling obituaries for the American Psychologist. The section editor is assisted by an Obituary Advisory Group which consists of 20-25 psychologists who represent most of the major areas of psychology, including academic science, teaching, and professional practice. When writing obituaries instructions are given to begin with concise statements of the major aspects of the person's life to include major, laudable contributions, history, biographical, educational, and career information, as well as awards. The article also goes over the selection process, noting that possible nominees come from multiple sources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Editorial policies of the American Psychologist.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the American Psychologist (AP). Since the publication of its first issue in January 1946, AP has served as the flagship journal for the American Psychological Association (APA) and has played an important and unique role for the field of psychology. Because of the quality of the articles published in AP, the journal has evolved into one of the most influential and widely cited publications in psychology. The purpose of this editorial is to outline a revised set of policies for the journal that builds on and expands those developed by previous editors (see, e.g., Fowler, 1993; Goodstein, 1987; Kiesler, 1976; Pallack, 1981). Before outlining these policies, I would like to explore the relative status and influence of AP within the universe of psychological and social science journals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Editorial statement of the American Psychologist.

Presents a statement from the ninth editor of the American Psychologist as it enters its 41st year of publication. The primary focus of this editorial is the journal's article selection criteria. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intrapsychic conflict versus developmental deficit: A causal modeling approach to examining psychoanalytic theories of narcissism.

Over the past 15 years, disorders of the self have occupied the attention of the psychoanalytic community. In particular, Otto Kernberg and Heinz Kohut have written extensively about narcissism, but from distinctly different theoretical vantage points. Each theorist has attracted adherents, but the debate between the conflict and deficit models of narcissism has been largely polemical, serving to further polarize the psychoanalytic community. Using the techniques of causal modeling, the article introduces this powerful data analytic strategy to psychoanalytic researchers and tests a model of narcissism which permits a direct, empirical comparison of some of the ideas of Kernberg and Kohut. In a number of strategic comparisons involving the theoretical underpinnings of narcissism--the structural stability of the self, damaged self-esteem, and grandiosity--these data appear to be more consistent with the deficit model, although various aspects of the conflict model also find support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lines written on first beholding the November issue of American Psychologist.

Article is a humorous poem regarding the cover color format of the November Issue of American Psychologist. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychoanalytic Interpretation in Rorschach Testing.

Reviews the book, Psychoanalytic Interpretation in Rorschach Testing by Roy Schafer (1954). This is one of the very few books on psychological testing addressed to the advanced worker. Many have been the books on Rorschach for novitiates, detailing how to administer and score the test; few have been the books on how also to interpret the results; and almost nonexistent have been the books dedicated to content analysis of the Rorschach. This is such a book. Additionally it is, to the best of this reviewer's knowledge, the first book that explicitly attempts to root the entire test firmly in a given personality theory, in this case the neo-analytic ego theory of the Freudian school. This book officially initiates a new trend in Rorschach interpretation, a trend that is heavily indebted to E. Schachtel. Schachtel demonstrated how the test could be utilized to ascertain the individual's attitude toward the test, the examiner, the entire test situation, and even to his own responses toward the inkblots, and how, from this information, the personality structure of the individual could be deduced. Taking his cue from Schachtel, but attempting to go beyond it, Schafer stresses content interpretation to the extent of eliminating most of the usual considerations of scores, percentages, and the like--not that such scores are completely unimportant, Schafer is careful to point out, but because he wishes to demonstrate how much may be achieved without them. Clearly, his book starts, not where other books leave off, but where other books have yet to probe. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infantile narcissism and the active infant.

Recent proposals to discard the concept of infantile narcissism as incompatible with currently available observations of infants pose a dilemma for psychoanalytic psychology because that concept has been of major importance in concurrent clinical investigations of borderline disorders. A reformulation of Freud's theory of infantile narcissism is proposed, based on Piaget's model of child development. It proposes that objectively the child is actively engaged with its environment from the beginning. Subjectively, however, in its own understanding, the infant does not recognize the world as external. Major phenomena of infantile narcissism are entailed by this model. Clinical illustrations are used to show its implications for the observed phenomena of borderline disorder in adults and children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

1996 editorial: 50th Anniversary Issue of the American Psychologist.

Presents an editorial on the 50th Anniversary Issue of The American Psychologist by the CEO and Executive Vice President of the American Psychological Association. An overview of changes to the journal and the developments in electronic communications pare presented, and the implications for international exchange in scholarly publishing are discussed. (0 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The founding of the American Psychologist: The professional journal that wasn't.

The American Psychologist began publication 50 years ago this month as the official journal of a reorganized American Psychological Association. The journal was created as a centerpiece of the new Association, reflecting its acknowledgment of a broader role for the APA, a role that called for the advancement of psychology as a profession. The American Psychologist was intended to be the "professional " journal of the new Association, but it never really filled that responsibility. Drawing on published records and the unpublished documents of the APA Archives, this article recounts the history of this journal's founding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The creation of the fetish, as illustrated by Nikita Mikhalkov's (1994) Burnt by the Sun.

A psychoanalytic interpretation of the film Burnt by the Sun (N. Mikhalkov, 1994) reveals the admiration and the homosexual love of Dimitri for Sergei Kotov. Out of castration anxieties and fear of dependency, Dimitri transforms his love object Sergei into a fetish. This makes him feel as if he could handle his relationship with the love object. When Dimitri is confronted with the fact that he has no power over Sergei, he decides to destroy his creation (i.e., himself). There no longer exists the possibility to establish human relations, maintain them, and feel empathy with the other. The narcissistic cathexis of the object and the dissolution of object love is one of the powerful psychological presuppositions for Stalinist terror. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Transforming narcissism: Reflections on empathy, humor, and expectations. Vol. 28: Psychoanalytic inquiry book series.

Reviews the book, Transforming narcissism: Reflections on empathy, humor, and expectations. Vol. 28: Psychoanalytic inquiry book series by Frank M. Lachmann (see record 2008-01083-000). This book is a welcome addition to the conversation on working with self-pathology. Lachmann brings a personal, conversational voice to the dialogue; there is much here to benefit students and seasoned clinicians alike. It is not a treatment manual for narcissism, but rather Lachmann’s own transformational dialogue with Heinz Kohut. Using Kohut’s (1966) article “Forms and Transformations of Narcissism” as a starting point, Lachmann elaborates Kohut’s contention that archaic narcissism is transformed through psychotherapy into empathy, humor, creativity, wisdom, and acceptance of our transience. He focuses on the first three elements as a means as much as a product of transformation in therapy, and the latter two elements are discussed as hopeful outcomes of the transformational process therapy engenders. Although there are limitations in terms of this book’s utility as a treatment guide for interventions with patients with narcissistic disorders, as a series of reflections on transformational processes it is often quite compelling. Lachmann the therapist advocates using empathy, humor, and creativity, not to try to impress or demonstrate his cleverness, but rather as bridge to transformational intimacy with his patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Fundamentals of psychoanalytic technique.

Reviews the book "Fundamentals of psychoanalytic technique," by Trygve Braat?y (see record 1955-00974-000). Braat?y, a slightly off-beat psychoanalyst, writes as a facile essayist, drawing on a vast fund of intriguingly patterned knowledge, often careless with words in his first approximations, but showing profound thoughtfulness and meticulous patience in setting forth his material. The material itself will be of variable interest to most psychologists. His book is a fascinating development in the gradually emerging rapprochement between those analysts who are completely unconscious and those psychologists who permit themselves to think only with the 10 per cent of their iceberg minds that maintains a bobbling existence above sea level. While much of the book lacks the authority of firmly established evidence, its purpose is more to consider implications that go beyond the evidence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parallel syndromes: Two dimensions of narcissism and the facets of psychopathic personality in criminally involved individuals.

Little research has examined different dimensions of narcissism that may parallel psychopathy facets in criminally involved individuals. In this study, we examined the pattern of relationships between grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, assessed using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory–16 and the Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, respectively, and the four facets of psychopathy (interpersonal, affective, lifestyle, and antisocial) assessed via the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version. As predicted, grandiose and vulnerable narcissism showed differential relationships to psychopathy facets, with grandiose narcissism relating positively to the interpersonal facet of psychopathy and vulnerable narcissism relating positively to the lifestyle facet of psychopathy. Paralleling existing psychopathy research, vulnerable narcissism showed stronger associations than grandiose narcissism to (a) other forms of psychopathology, including internalizing and substance use disorders, and (b) self- and other-directed aggression, measured with the Life History of Aggression and the Forms of Aggression Questionnaire. Grandiose narcissism was nonetheless associated with social dysfunction marked by a manipulative and deceitful interpersonal style and unprovoked aggression. Potentially important implications for uncovering etiological pathways and developing treatment interventions for these disorders in externalizing adults are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)