Taking Guilt Seriously

2021 ◽  
pp. 119-144
Author(s):  
Alan Norrie
Keyword(s):  
Object Relations ◽  
Psychoanalytic Theory ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Structural Theory ◽  
Retributive Theory

This chapter identifies two kinds of guilt and considers how the retributive theory of punishment sits in relation to them. It draws on two lines in psychoanalytic theory, Melanie Klein’s object relations approach, and the Hans Loewald and Jonathan Lear development of the later Freud’s structural theory in terms of an ontology of love. The two kinds of guilt may be termed ‘early’ and ‘mature’, where the former entails a punitive and persecutory attitude of condemnation to a perpetrator, the latter an account which emphasizes restoration or atonement through making good. Considering Jeffrie Murphy’s account, I argue that the problem for retributivism is that there is at least an historical logic in how it is deployed in modern society, in terms of an early guilt which tends to the punitive and persecutory. An alternative guilt that is restorative and atoning might inform another retributive theory, one that was mature in its understanding of how serious violation should be addressed.

The Psychoanalytic Theory of Depression: Part II — the Major Themes

1979 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 557-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.M. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Object Relations ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Psychoanalytic Theory ◽  
Structural Theory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Object Relations Theory ◽  
Object Loss ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
Psychoanalytic Approach

In this second part of a review of the psychoanalytic theory of depression the major themes of the theory, as they appear in the works of the major contributors, are discussed. It is difficult to approach the complexities and ambiguities of psychoanalytic theory in general, and the theory of depression in particular, without an historical perspective. Accordingly, the author decided to group the major themes of the theory under three headings: Instinct Theory, Structural Theory, Object Relations Theory. The themes included under Instinct Theory are constitutional factors, aggression and orality. Under the heading of Structural Theory those themes associated with the ego, with the concepts of narcissism and the self, and finally those associated with the superego are discussed. It is of note that under narcissism the work of both Kohut and Kernberg is considered, including its relevance to any investigation of depression. The concepts of object loss and object failure are discussed under the heading of Object Relations Theory. It is suggested that a psychoanalytic approach has much to offer both the clinician and the researcher in their attempts to develop a comprehensive theory to explain the protean manifestations of human depression.

Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory

1983 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay R. Greenberg ◽  
Stephen A. Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Object Relations ◽  
Psychoanalytic Theory

Anmerkungen zur Theorie des Selbst innerhalb der Psychoanalyse

1985 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte Weidenhammer
Keyword(s):  
Object Relations ◽  
Psychoanalytic Theory ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
Human Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
Dependency Relations ◽  
Cultural Reality ◽  
Representational World

AbstractThe concept of self is imbedded in the psychoanalytic theory of object relations. The theory of object relations poses the question of the constitution of the person’s inner life or ‘representational world’. It will be discussed, in what respect the concept of self serves the description of dependency relations, in which the psychic relations of the person to the social and cultural reality are expressed. The significance of the concept of self lies in the explicative role it takes in the portrayal of the individual’s developing participation in human community.

scholarly journals Peculiarities of psychotherapeutic work with narcissically organized individuals

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Object Relations ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Mental Development ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Pathological Narcissism ◽  
Narcissistic Personality ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Structural Peculiarities ◽  
Frame Work

The article presents the features of psychotherapeutic work with narcissistic problems, which relevant for modern society. There are two interrelated reasons which are connected with the growth of interest in the problem of narcissism: the first one –social transformations, the formation of narcissistic culture; and these condone – an increase in cases of clients with narcissistic personality organization. The growth of narcissistic pathology is associated with social changes in modern society. The consumption society, which is relevant for the present, provokes a person to the unbridled striving for success and perfectionism. This is a favorable condition for the strain of narcissistic mechanisms of personality. Different approaches to the understanding of narcissism in the frame work of psychoanalytic thinking are considered. G. Rosenfeld first developed the theory of pathological narcissism. According to his ideas, the narcissistic personality, due to it is "omnipotence", introduces a "good" partial object (in the terminology tradition of the school of object relations) and, in an omnipotent manner, as cribs itself to this object. In narcissistic object relations omnipotence I play key role. O. Kernberg understands narcissism in terms of structural peculiarities of the psyche. He classifies narcissism in a wide range from norm to pathology. H. Kohut believed that narcissism is an integral part of normal mental development of man. Understanding narcissism from the stand point of H. Kohut is reflected in the idea that the content of the problem of narcissism lies not in the extent to which one or another person is narcissistic, but in how it regulates its narcissism. Features of psychotherapeutic contact with narcissically organized individuals are described. Some strategies of psychotherapy for narcissistic clients are given.

Mothering Molloy, or Beckett and Cutlery

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-51
Author(s):  
Seán Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Object Relations ◽  
Psychoanalytic Theory ◽  
Irish Literature ◽  
Object Relations Theory ◽  
Health And Wellness ◽  
Central Concern ◽  
Wilfred Bion ◽  
British School ◽  
Donald Winnicott

This essay reads Beckett's relationship to psychoanalysis as a central concern of Molloy, arguing that Molloy's quest for mother traces Beckett's re-evaluation of the British school of object-relations theory of Wilfred Bion and Donald Winnicott. Tracing fine furniture, in Irish literature of the 1920s and 1930s, as an objective correlative of Anglo-Irish distinction, and linking that tradition to a Winnicottian reading of Molloy's impulsive theft of silverware, I argue that Molloy parodies the language of object-relations in order to situate Beckett newly in relation to it. In other words, Beckett intimates that Molloy's unhealthy obsession with mother is mirrored in psychoanalytic theory itself. In this way, writing Molloy allows him to re-evaluate psychoanalysis in its obsession with ‘mother’ as the founding site of psychic health and wellness.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document