Understanding Mental Objects

ISBN-13: 9780415121798 / Angielski / Miękka / 1995 / 224 str.

Meir Perlow

Opis

The ways in which an individual (the subject) relates to and perceives other people (his or her objects) has been a preoccupation of psychoanalysis and in recent years a plethora of concepts has grown up in the literature. In this study, the changing meanings of the different concepts are explained from context to context, discussing in depth the theoretical issues underlying them. The text includes an historical survey of how mental objects have been understood in the various schools of psychoanalysis as they have developed. The topics discussed include: Freud and his associates; the object-relations approaches of Klein, Fairbairn and Bion; orientations derived from ego psychology such as those of Schafer and Kernberg and the self orientation of Winnicott and Kohut. The author also discusses the conceptual and clinical issues involved in the major differences between the concepts. The three basic meanings of the concepts of mental objects as they have emerged in the literature are demonstrated showing how they are related to ongoing issues in contemporary psychoanalysis.

Spis treści

Preface. Introduction. Part One: Historical Survey. Freud and his Associates. Object-related Orientations. Orientations in Ego Psychology. Self Orientations. Part Two: Major Theoretical Issues. Origins of the Mental Object - internal or External. Status of the Mental Object - Experiential or Non-experiential. The Mental Object and Motivation. The Mental Object as a Development Capacity. The Position of the Mental Object Vis-a-vis the Self. Responsibility - The Clinical Issue. Part Three: A Conceptual Analysis. Mental Objects as Representations (Or Schemas). Mental Objects as Phantasies. Mental Objects as Developmental Capacities. Conclusion. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

O autorze

Meir Perlow Ph.D., is Senior Clinical Psychologist at Eitanim Psychiatric Hospital, Jerusalem. He was formerly a lecturer in psychoanalytic theory at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and now conducts a variety of seminars on psychoanalytic subjects.