Psychopathology II

Second Year Adult Psychoanalytic Training (APT)
2023-24, 2nd Trimester — Fridays, 3:30-5:00pm
Michael Pauly, MD
Babak Roshanaei-Moghaddam, MD

View Whole Syllabus

January 5, 2024 — Neurotic vs Perverse Syntax and the Relationship to Reality

[28 pages]

In these chapters, Lee Grossman differentiates the syntax of neurotic individuals and those he categorizes as perverse (within which he would include borderline and narcissistic individuals). He distinguishes between the two groups based on their relationship to reality and the use of repression in the case of neurotics and disavowal in the case of those categorized as perverse.

One can connect Grossman’s thinking with Winnicott’s Object Usage paper in terms of the impact of a not-good enough object (inadequate facilitating environment) resulting in an inability to mourn one’s omnipotence, disavow reality rather than mourn fantasy wishes (repression), and control rather one’s object rather than related in a mutual – reciprocal way that recognizes the other’s subjectivity.

Grossman, L. (2023) Ch1, “Neurosis as a Way of Thinking” in The Psychoanalytic Encounter and the Misuse of Theory, pp11-18.

Grossman, L. (2023) Ch4: “Perverse Syntax and the Perverse Attitude Toward Reality” in The Psychoanalytic Encounter and the Misuse of Theory, pp32-42

Grossman, L. (2023) Ch 5: “Reality Testing in Perverse Organization” in The Psychoanalytic Encounter and the Misuse of Theory, pp43-51