British Object Relations

Adult Psychoanalytic Training (APT)
2020-21, 1st Trimester — Fridays, 3:30-5:00pm
Maureen Pendras, MSW


Introduction

Hello and welcome to British Object Relations (BOR).  We have arranged this course with classical and contemporary writers from BOR theory to provide a rich introduction to this material. We want to give you a sense of what it is, from which we can then understand and explore its developments and its critiques. BOR is a theory born from creative and political controversy.  It is also a living theory in so far as it continues to evolve with many branches evolving from the same trunk.   In addition to the classical writers, we will explore BOR in Mexico, Central and South America and how theory interacts within a culture and context to make its own developments.

As this is a Theory course, our discussions will come alive with your clinical material.  We hope to invite your questions, arguments, half-thoughts and to deepen our conversation.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course Clinical Associates will be able to:

  1. Describe the fundamental concepts of BOR theory.
  2. Demonstrate increased capacity to recognize the analytic process through the here and now transference/countertransference experience.
  3. Understand some of the developments of British Object Relations to other parts of the world, specifically Mexico, Central and South America and its own development/creations in this cultural context.
  4. Empathize with the complexities of emotional experience as known through primitive mechanisms such as projective identification.

September 11, 2020 — Introduction to Melanie Klein’s Conception of Psychoanalytic Technique

[39 pages]

Klein, M., (2017) Ch1, “Guiding Principles” in Lectures on Technique. pp29-41.

Ogden, T.H. (1984). Instinct, Phantasy, and Psychological Deep Structure—A Reinterpretation of Aspects of the Work of Melanie Klein. Contemp. Psychoanal., 20:500-525.

Joseph, B. (2010). YouTube Video: “Meeting Betty Joseph”

“Encounters through the Generations”. 14 mins.

September 18, 2020 — Unconscious Phantasy

[43 pages]

Isaacs, S. (1948). The Nature and Function of Phantasy. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 29:73-97.

Ogden, T.H. (1984) Reading Susan Isaacs: Toward a Radically Revised Theory of Thinking. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 92(4):925-942

September 25, 2020 — The Positions

[23 pages]

Steiner, J. (1992). The Equilibrium Between the Paranoid-Schizoid and the Depressive Positions. New Library of Psychoanalysis, 14:46-58.

Waska, R. (2003). Greed, idealization, and the paranoid-schizoid experience of insatiability. Scand. Psychoanal. Rev., 26(1):41-50

October 2, 2020 — Projective Identification

[28 pages]

Cimino, C.; Correale, A. (2005) Projective Identification and Consciousness Alteration: A Bridge Between Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 86(1):51-60

Eaton, J.L. (2005). The Obstructive Object. Psychoanal. Rev., 92(3):355-372.

October 9, 2020 — Working through

[27 pages]

*The mid-term class evaluation will be conducted during this session. Please use these questions to facilitate your discussion: Midterm Evaluation 2019-02-13

Moser-Ha, H. (2001). Working Through Envy. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 82(4):713-725

Brown, L.J. (2010). Klein, Bion, and Intersubjectivity: Becoming, Transforming, and Dreaming. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 20(6):669-682

October 16, 2020 — Winnicott – Use of an Object

[26 pages]

Winnicott, D.W. (1969) The Use of an Object. IJP, 50:711-716.

Ogden, T.H. (2016). Destruction Reconceived: On Winnicott’s “The Use of an Object and Relating through Identifications”. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 97(5):1243-1262

October 23, 2020 — Winnicott – The Development of Concern

[33 pages]

Winnicott, D.W. (1963). The Development of the Capacity for Concern, The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment, ch6, pp73-82

Abram, J. (1996). The Language of Winnicott. The Stage of Concern. Clunie Press. pp101-115

Swartz, S. (2018) Counter-Recognition in Decolonial Struggle, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 28(5):520-527

October 30, 2020 — Fairbairn

[36 pages]

[Class ends at 4:45pm due to the CAM meeting.]

Beattie, H.J. (2003). The repression and the return of bad objects. Intl J. Psycho-Anal., 84(5):1171-1187

Sherby, L. (2007). Rediscovering Fairbairn.  Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 43(2): 185-203

Optional Reading

Ogden, T.H. (2010). Why read Fairbairn? IJP, 91(1):101-118.

November 6, 2020 — Bion

[13 pages]

Audio of Bion from https://www.harris-meltzer-trust.org.uk/Bion%20Tavi

Eshel, O. (2018) From Extension to Revolutionary Change in Clinical Psychoanalysis in Awakening into Analytic Oneness, pp237-249.

Grotstein, J. (2007) A Beam of Intense Darkness: Wilfred Bion’s Legacy to Psychoanalysis, ch2-3, pp27-35

November 13, 2020 — BOR in Latin America

[39 pages]

De Bernardi, B.D. (2000). The Countertransference: A Latin American View. Intl J. Psycho-Anal., 81(2):331-351

Puget, J. (2003). How to Cope with Social Disasters. Free Associations, 10(4):454-471

November 20, 2020 — Extensions of Theory

[44 pages]

De Bernardi, B.L. (2008). Introduction to the Paper by Madeleine and Willy Baranger: The Analytic Situation as a Dynamic Field, Intl J. Psycho-Anal., 89(4):773-784

Baranger, M. Baranger, W. (2008). The Analytic Situation as a Dynamic Field. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 89(4):795-826.