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Introduction to Child Analysis
October 23, 2020 @ 10:15 am - 11:45 pm, Wyman Classroom
Fourth Year Child Psychoanalytic Training (CPT)
2020-21, 1st Trimester — Fridays, 10:15-11:45am
Julie Wood, MA
Ellika McGuire, MD
Ann De Lancey, PhD
Donald Schimmel, PhD
Denise C.K. Fort, PhD
Flaviane Ferreira, MD LMHC
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October 23, 2020 — The Primary Triangle: Evolution
Presenter: Denise C.K. Fort, PhD
September 21, 1897, in a letter to Fliess, Freud shares a “great secret.” He no longer has confidence in his theory of the neuroses. Abandoning his initial formulations was then a point of departure which resulted in a major theoretical revision. The subsequent publication of The Interpretation of Dreams was regarded as being of such significance that its publication “marked the birth of psychoanalysis (Lake, 1989).” In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud assigned the Oedipus Complex a singularly central role in psychosexual development and Oedipal conflict was posited to be the basis of neuroses.
But these innovative and original theories were the object of criticism and a potent source of controversy which continues to the present. Our reading in Fivaz-Depeursing and Corboz-Warnery is one such review based on clinical research and observations. Freud’s focus on oedipal conflict neglects the larger, earlier, and more significant formation of affective connections within the family. Fivaz-Depeursing and Corboz-Warner observe:
“ . . .we scarcely know how a family develops as a threesome.”
Fivaz-Depeursing and Corboz-Warner. (1999). The Primary Triangle: A Developmental Systems View of Mothers, Fathers, and Infants. New York: Basic Books. pp. xi-31.
As a result of reading and discussing Fivaz-Depeursing and Corboz-Warner class participants will be able to:
- describe family alliances and how family resources are assessed;
- describe the family as a unit as contrasted with the family as a set of dyads;
- describe triangulation as a normative process.
