Third Year Adult Psychoanalytic Training (APT)
2024-25, Fall Term — Fridays, 1:45-3:15pm
Matthew Brooks, LICSW, FIPA
Table of Contents
Introduction
Welcome to British Object Relations. “Object relations” is an ever-growing body of thought devoted to the idea that our psyches are living, breathing worlds, defined by internalized, affectively charged relationships, and existing in the interplay between inner and outer, wholeness and disintegration, and conscious and unconscious. Our guides for the next 13 weeks are Melanie Klein, Donald Winnicott, Wilfred Bion, several of their contemporaries, and several of our own.
Object relations theories are paradoxically both developmental and non-linear. As opposed to Freudian approaches to the mind as apparatus or topography, object relations approaches are grounded in how experience is organized and represented at the intrapsychic level, from earliest life on. Object relations is concerned with the quality of mental representations, as well as the processes of thinking, the nature of objects, and, crucially, the function of emotion.
Historically, object relations builds on and is a response to Freudian theories about drives and identifications — themes you have encountered in, among other sources, Mourning and Melancholia and On Narcissism. The place of drives in object relations is something that we will track throughout this course. In fact, Freud used the term “object” regularly, but speaking broadly he was more interested in drives and their satisfaction or frustration. When he did turn to objects, he tended to focus on their relation to the developing ego and superego. Some object relations theorists, perhaps not surprisingly, have called themselves ‘the true Freudians.’ We will have several chances to see that the history of this field can bring the ideas to life and give them much-needed context.
I hope that our time with British Object Relations will help you question the role of theory in your evolving psychoanalytic identity. I hope that it will help you strengthen your capacity for bearing the here-and-now in your work. I hope that it will help you grow your own ideas about what constitutes therapeutic action. And I hope that you will enjoy it very much.
A note about reading
This is a discussion-based seminar. We will stay close to the texts. Please read the assigned material for each class, and come to each class prepared for dialogue. I encourage reading not only with a highlighter, but with Sharpies, Post-Its, PEP-WEB and psychoanalytic encyclopedias nearby!
For the readings, we have a mix of original sources and later commentaries. You may find that the style of some of the early analysts can be challenging or even seem esoteric. Plenty of wonderful later writers have summarized and synthesized these ideas in clearer language. Reading the originals is important and well worth the challenge. The reward is a unique, and I think empowering, internalization of the ideas you will acquire.
As with all courses, please bring in or allow yourselves to associate to your own clinical work as it comes to mind. We will go over mutual expectations about participation in class.
Learning Objectives
At the end of this course, candidates will be able to:
- Describe the major contributions of Klein, Winnicott and Bion to psychoanalysis, and apply their respective models of the mind in assessing and treating patients.
- Utilize object relations concepts and ideas (such as projective identification, splitting, paranoid-schizoid vs. depressive positions) to more deeply empathize with patients and understand the dyadic clinical encounter.
- Integrate the concepts of object relations into their own growing psychoanalytic knowledge base and clinical style.
September 6, 2024 — Unconscious phantasy
[25 pages]We begin with a broad and articulate review of Klein’s concepts of the building blocks of psychic life. Klein’s career was well established by the mid-1920s, and by the late 1920s, she was the central figure of the British Psychoanalytical Society. By the mid-1940s, especially after the Freuds arrived in London in 1938, years of interpersonal conflicts had strained the Society to the breaking point, and Klein’s theories were at the center of the storm. Susan Isaacs, an accomplished early childhood psychologist and educator, was a member of Klein’s inner circle. This paper became the centerpiece of the first five sessions of the Controversial Discussions, enumerating as it did Klein’s ideas about the nature of unconscious life in detail, and asserting Klein’s continuity with Freud. (It was written for those meetings, in 1943, but not published until after the war.)
Isaacs, S. (1948). The Nature and Function of Phantasy. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 29:73-97.
September 13, 2024 — The paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions
[46 pages]Having established the Kleinian landscape of the mind, we turn to Klein’s view of development. She finds that infants are born able to relate to others, but lack capacity for ambivalence, with the result that primitive anxieties and defenses around internal and external forces propel the infant’s psyche and set the stage for development. This paper is a relatively succinct reworking of several earlier papers on the topic, and focuses on her concept of the positions, as well as her general ideas about internalization and object relations.
John Steiner, like many of Klein’s followers, distilled her views into grounded, experience-near language. His paper captures the tension between development and non-linearity that characterizes this field.
Klein, M. (1952). “Some Theoretical Conclusions Regarding the Emotional Life of the Infant” in Writings of Melanie Klein Vol. III, Envy and Gratitude and Other Works, 1946-1963, pp61-93.
Steiner, J. (1992). The Equilibrium Between the Paranoid-Schizoid and the Depressive Positions. New Library of Psychoanalysis, 14:46-58.
September 20, 2024 — Kleinian psychopathology
[22 pages]Klein spent her career building a metapsychology based on unconscious phantasy, the role of aggression, and the constant movement of the psyche among its various positions. Her ideas have proved especially useful in understanding severe mental illnesses and personality disorders. Here she examines problems related to excessive or rigid splitting, primitive projection, denial and psychosis. In this paper she offers her ideas about W.R.D. Fairbairn, a Scottish analyst and her contemporary, who was instrumental in establishing object relations as a theory but who radically de-emphasized aggression and drives.
Hanna Segal, one of Klein’s students, applied Klein’s theories to such diverse areas as aesthetics, war, and art, but was principally known for clarifying Klein’s concepts. The chapter we read today is from a collection of Segal’s lectures on Klein to candidates at the London Institute.
Klein, M. (1946). Notes on Some Schizoid Mechanisms. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 27:99-110.
Segal, H. (1973). Ch7, “Manic Defences” in Introduction to the Work of Melanie Klein, pp82-91.
September 27, 2024 — Envy and gratitude, guilt and reparation
[79 pages]Klein’s concept of envy in early object relations remains a polarizing idea, one well worth wrestling with. In her book on envy and gratitude, reflecting years of clinical experience, she expands on the threats to psychic integrity from excessive envy and destructiveness. She also examines in detail the possibilities of the analytic situation. She asserts the centrality of transference and the need for the analyst to become an internal object (especially a bad one), and the role of envy in the development of healthy repression.
David Eng’s paper begins with a detailed examination of Klein’s concept of reparation, from both an intrapsychic and social/historical point of view. When the capacity for love and guilt have been attained, where does the capacity for violence and aggression go? He finds that reparation, far from embodying morality or altruism, can signify splitting and denial as much as any other psychic position, an argument with consequences for both psychoanalysis and any social reparation project.
Klein, M. (1957). “Envy and Gratitude” in Writings of Melanie Klein Vol. III, Envy and Gratitude and Other Works, 1946-1963. pp.176-235.
Eng, D. (2016). Colonial object relations. Social Text, 34:1, 1-19.
October 4, 2024 — Clinical reflections and divergence from Klein
[12 pages]Paula Heimann was another close colleague of Klein. This short paper is a clear and modestly argued position statement about the centrality of the analyst’s emotional, subjective experience in connecting with the patient’s unconscious. Klein could not agree with this; their argument led Heimann to group herself with the Independents in the London Institute.
Betty Joseph was an analysand of Heimann. From our perspective she is a linking figure between Klein and Bion. In her extensive body of work, she explored the value of close attention to process, and prioritized working in the here-and-now over making “deeper” part-object interpretations. She emphasized openness to all sources of information in the clinical encounter, including the countertransference and the ‘total situation’ of a patient’s transferences and object world. Joseph’s vision powerfully expands the idea of psychoanalysis, while presented very much in a Kleinian dialect.
Heimann, P. (1950). On Counter-Transference. Int J Psychoanalysis, 31: 81-84.
Joseph, B. (1985). Transference: The Total Situation. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 66:447-454.
Optional Reading
Joseph, B. (1975). "The patient who is difficult to reach" in P.L. Giovacchini (Ed.) Tactics and Techniques in Psychoanalytic Therapy Vol. 2: Countertransference, pp75-87.
October 11, 2024 — Winnicott — Early development and primitive mental states
[25 pages]Winnicott thought of the psyche as shaped by constant paradox. For Winnicott, life is found in the movement between fantasy and reality — between the mental work of projecting and imagining, and the impact of the environment, especially the maternal figure. These two early papers give a sense of his preoccupation with these issues. They also introduce us to Winnicott’s writing style, which, while conveying his thinking, requires engagement on its own terms.
Winnicott, D.W. (1945). “Primitive emotional development” in Through Paediatrics to Psycho-Analysis. London: Hogarth Press (1975), pp145-157.
Winnicott, D.W. (1949/1953). “Mind and its relation to the psyche-soma.” in Through Paediatrics to Psycho-Analysis. London: Hogarth Press (1975), pp243-254.
October 18, 2024 — Winnicott — Play and transitional experience
[29 pages]In his work on play and transitional experience, beginning with his early conceptualization of the transitional object, Winnicott touched on every aspect of psychic life. In these papers, Winnicott explores the nature of objects, processes of internalization, and the characteristics of the ‘potential space’ required for growth. In these works we see Winnicott expressing the centrality of freedom, empathy and creativity in developing fulfilling lives.
Winnicott, D.W. (1975). Through Paediatrics to Psycho-Analysis, Ch17 “Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena”, pp229-242
Winnicott, D.W. (1971). Chapter 3: “Playing: a theoretical statement” in Playing and Reality. London: Tavistock Publications, pp38-52.
October 25, 2024 — Symbol formation, Bion’s functions, and representation
[45 pages]As we turn towards Bion, we encounter the centrality of the concept of representation. This refers to the transformation of raw, primary experience into represented form: either symbol (allowing for thought) or signal affect (allowing for action). Freud and Klein noted that much of our early experience is unmentalized, that is to say, not (yet) symbolized. This paper examines the nature of unmentalized experience and the processes of symbolization, in pathology and health, and in the developing infant as well as ongoing life. Mitrani also outlines the protective mechanisms that can emerge when trauma disrupts symbolizing processes, with significant implications for analysis.
Mitrani, J.L. (1995). Toward An Understanding Of Unmentalized Experience. Psychoanal Q., 64:68-112.
November 1, 2024 — Bion
[55 pages]Wilfred Bion, analyzed by Klein, expanded on many of her ideas, especially about projective identification and psychosis. He developed his own language and theories about thinking and feeling. In this selection of Bion’s papers, we will encounter containment, alpha functions and beta elements, nameless dread, and bizarre objects. Another major contribution we will find is his idea of the link between internal objects (the emotional quality of relatedness), as opposed to the quality of objects or part-objects themselves. His emphasis on processes of thinking and dreaming, instead of on the symbolic content of thought and phantasy, de-emphasizes the body-based focus of Klein. It shifts analysis towards an experience of two minds mentalizing together in the interest of truth and growth.
Joseph Aguayo, a Los Angeles-based analyst, is one of the principal living scholars of Bion, Winnicott, and their contemporaries. Aguayo’s 2017 book review of Bion’s collected works, edited and published in 2014, is a useful, detailed survey of Bion’s career and the evolution of his ideas.
- Bion, W.R. (1957). On Arrogance.
- Bion, W.R. (1959). Attacks on Linking.
- Bion, W.R. (1962). A Theory of Thinking.
Bion, W.R. (1967). Second Thoughts: Selected Papers on Psychoanalysis. pp.65-119.
Optional Reading
Aguayo, J. (2017). Review of: The Complete Works of W. R. Bion, Int J Psychoanalysis, 98(1), 221-243.
November 15, 2024 — Bion’s influence
[22 pages]Donald Meltzer, an American, originally trained as a Kleinian in England. He developed his own personal set of psychoanalytic ideas inspired by Klein, Bion, his work with children and groups, and his own idiosyncratic experience in training. His essay here compares the three dominant psychoanalytic models of the mind and illustrates clearly what all three have in common and not. It represents an attitude of synthesis and orientation to emotionality that is characteristic of much post-Kleinian theory.
James Gooch, also American, and also an adult and child analyst, had his second analysis with Bion, who became a transformative figure for him. Bion’s ideas, so emotional and yet at times so ephemeral, are given tangible shape by Gooch’s narrative. Bion emerges from this account as humane, attentive, and as Gooch says, “increasingly comprehensible.”
Meltzer, D. (2009). Ch. 3 “The Klein-Bion expansion of Freud’s metapsychology” in Dream Life. Perthshire: Clunie Press, pp36-47.
Gooch, J.A. (2020). Ch8, “Reflections on My Analysis With Dr. Bion” in London Kleinians in Los Angeles: Laying the Foundation of Object Relations Theory and Practice. pp.103-112.
November 22, 2024 — Embodiment
[20 pages]David Brooks and Patricia Antin’s paper exemplifies a contemporary vantage point: the Klein and Winnicott focus on early childhood development, filtered through Bion’s theory of thinking, applied to the modern analytic encounter. Using lively clinical material, they bring to life the parallels between infant/mother and patient/analyst. With these parallels in mind, they reconsider what moments of impasse can signify.
Esther Bick, a Polish analyst who started her training in Vienna and came to England before World War II as a refugee, was originally part of the Kleinian circle. She built a career training child therapists and developed the Tavistock model of infant observation. Her short paper here is a remarkable contribution. For the baby, the skin can be felt to hold together the parts of the self which as yet have no coherence. Maternal containment is necessary for the growth of the baby’s ‘psychic skin,’ and when this fails, the baby may resort to omnipotent, pseudo-independent means of protection, including somatic symptoms, withdrawal, and ‘adhesive’ kinds of identification.
Brooks, D.M. & Antin, P.K. (2022). Ch9, “Clinical impasse: The infant body and gathering of a soul” in Body as Psychoanalytic Object: Clinical Applications from Winnicott to Bion and Beyond. pp.84-100.
Bick, E. (1968). “The experience of the Skin in Early Object-Relations.” IJP 49:484-486
December 6, 2024 — Trauma
[17 pages]Judy Eekhoff, an NPSI-trained analyst and SPSI faculty member, has written extensively in a Bion-inspired idiom. In her words: “Emotional links to others organize our experience. We attune unconsciously and automatically with whomever we are with. When we do this, we use our own internal organization to attribute meaning…the psychic black hole is a primitive psychosomatic representation of undifferentiation and loss…as a sign or a signal used for self-regulation, the black hole marks deficit in the ability to symbolize that evokes states of meaninglessness, nothingness, and hopelessness.” As we approach the end of this course, how do these ideas help you engage with trauma?
Eekhoff, J. (2022). Ch3, “The Black Hole: alarm signal of catastrophe” in Bion and Primitive Mental States / Trauma and the Symbiotic Link, pp.37-53.
December 13, 2024 — Post-Bion field theory (and course review)
[14 pages]Today’s articles introduce us to post-Bionian field theory. In this approach, Bion’s theory of thinking is relocated to the intersubjective field. As Alice Huang says, summing up this view, “all clinical data observed by the analyst…are viewed as potential metaphors about the psychic totality of the analysis.” For Civitarese, the psychic totality that Huang names is the “dream text” that the analyst and patient generate and read together. Intuition, for him, represents the analyst’s ability to get in touch with this ongoing, shared dream. It is not the same as insight; it is rooted in affects, embodiment, and the imagination. Huang considers the aesthetic dimension of lived experience as an opening into the analytic field.
Civitarese G. (2023). We-ness as an expansion of Bion’s psychoanalytic function of intuition. Fort Da 29:7–16.
Huang, A.X. (2023). Finding “Sense” without Co-Presence: The Role of Aesthetic Sensibility in an Ontological Approach to Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 33:5, 626-639