The Origins of the Leading Edge in Kohut's Work

2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-196
Author(s):  
Peter Zimmermann ◽  
Harry Paul
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
The Self ◽  
Corrective Emotional Experience ◽  
Center Stage ◽  
Psychoanalytic Treatment ◽  
Psychoanalytic Literature ◽  
Growth Promoting ◽  
Selfobject Transference ◽  
Forward Edge

This article traces the evolution of the concept of the leading edge in Kohut's work. The leading edge is defined as the growth-promoting dimension of the transference. The authors argue that although Kohut did not ever use the term explicitly in his writings—Marian Tolpin (2002), one of Kohut's gifted pupils, introduced the concept into the psychoanalytic literature in the form of the forward edge—the idea of the leading edge was already present in nascent form in Kohut's earliest papers and became ever more central as his psychology of the self evolved and the concept of the selfobject transference took center stage. Kohut, it is argued, could not fully develop the idea of working with the leading edge for fear of being accused of advocating for a corrective emotional experience in psychoanalytic treatment. However, in his posthumous empathy paper (1982) Kohut came as close as he could to endorsing the leading edge as pivotal in all psychoanalytic work.

A Self Psychological Analysis of Rorschach Thematic Content

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marshall L. Silverstein
Keyword(s):  
Sequence Analysis ◽  
Self Psychology ◽  
The Self ◽  
Thematic Content ◽  
Psychological Concept ◽  
Psychological Analysis ◽  
Selfobject Transference ◽  
Selfobject Needs ◽  
Forward Edge

Abstract. In this discussion of the case of Ms. B., I consider this patient’s Rorschach responses from the theoretical viewpoint of psychoanalytic self psychology ( Kohut, 1971 , 1996 ). Using thematic content and sequence analysis, I demonstrate how the self psychological concept of the forward edge ( Tolpin, 2002 ) may indicate how a selfobject transference emerges as a representation of thwarted legitimate developmental strivings that have been driven underground. I attempt to illustrate how such unrecognized selfobject needs may be reactivated on the Rorschach and how they may be understood as fragile tendrils of remaining healthy needs.

scholarly journals On the structure of the self-sustaining cycle in separating and reattaching flows

2018 ◽  
Vol 857 ◽  
pp. 907-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Cimarelli ◽  
A. Leonforte ◽  
D. Angeli
Keyword(s):  
Shear Layer ◽  
Rectangular Plate ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Reverse Flow ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Streamwise Velocity ◽  
The Self ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Spectral Evolution ◽  
Mean Velocity

The separating and reattaching flows and the wake of a finite rectangular plate are studied by means of direct numerical simulation data. The large amount of information provided by the numerical approach is exploited here to address the multi-scale features of the flow and to assess the self-sustaining mechanisms that form the basis of the main unsteadinesses of the flows. We first analyse the statistically dominant flow structures by means of three-dimensional spatial correlation functions. The developed flow is found to be statistically dominated by quasi-streamwise vortices and streamwise velocity streaks as a result of flow motions induced by hairpin-like structures. On the other hand, the reverse flow within the separated region is found to be characterized by spanwise vortices. We then study the spectral properties of the flow. Given the strongly inhomogeneous nature of the flow, the spectral analysis has been conducted along two selected streamtraces of the mean velocity field. This approach allows us to study the spectral evolution of the flow along its paths. Two well-separated characteristic scales are identified in the near-wall reverse flow and in the leading-edge shear layer. The first is recognized to represent trains of small-scale structures triggering the leading-edge shear layer, whereas the second is found to be related to a very large-scale phenomenon that embraces the entire flow field. A picture of the self-sustaining mechanisms of the flow is then derived. It is shown that very-large-scale fluctuations of the pressure field alternate between promoting and suppressing the reverse flow within the separation region. Driven by these large-scale dynamics, packages of small-scale motions trigger the leading-edge shear layers, which in turn created them, alternating in the top and bottom sides of the rectangular plate with a relatively long period of inversion, thus closing the self-sustaining cycle.

Up to a Point

On Essays ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 313-322
Author(s):  
Adam Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Psychoanalytic Treatment ◽  
Psychoanalytic Literature ◽  
Serial Process ◽  
The Right

This chapter explores the omission of the essay from psychoanalytic literature, both as a form to which analysts refer, and as one in which they write. The absence of the word from the titles of professional publications, and the sense that the essays of psychoanalysts are a truancy from institutional forms, suggest that the essay’s scepticism and unfinishedness are in opposition to psychoanalytic expertise. The avoidance, even repression, of the form reveals what psychoanalysis denies in order to become an institution. As the example of Freud’s Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality shows, however, the essay’s experimentalism, provisionality, and incompletion are in fact analogous both to Freud’s account of desire and sexuality, and to the serial process of psychoanalytic treatment. The essay’s privileging of the useful and interesting over the right and perfected offers both a model for psychoanalysis, and, despite its neglect, an apt form for its insights.

Moving Signs

2020 ◽  
pp. 46-80
Author(s):  
Tony Perman
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Self ◽  
The World ◽  
Semiotic Phenomenology ◽  
The Impact

The chapter explains the theoretical framework that guides the analysis in subsequent chapters and introduces a model for understanding emotional experience rooted in the semiotic phenomenology of C. S Peirce. This model allows for the explication of diverse modes of experience and explains the impact of habits and values in the interpretation of signs during ceremonial performance. As selves and interpersonal relationships are implicated in semiosis, experience becomes affective, linking perceptual, physiological, cultural, and public judgments in ongoing processes and projects of future-oriented flourishing. This four-step sequence---affect, emotion-appraisal, feeling, emotive is grounded in the self and its place in the world.

Assimilative Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

2019 ◽  
pp. 207-227
Author(s):  
George Stricker ◽  
Jerry Gold
Keyword(s):  
Therapeutic Relationship ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Corrective Emotional Experience ◽  
Potential Value ◽  
Equivalent Efficacy

Assimilative psychodynamic psychotherapy maintains a relational psychodynamic focus and methodology but assimilates interventions from other orientations seamlessly when it might help to facilitate treatment for the patient. In order to understand the potential value of these interventions drawn from other orientations, accommodation is necessary. This is done by means of an expanded three-tier model. The importance of the therapeutic relationship, particularly with regard to providing a corrective emotional experience, and the value of self-understanding is stressed. An illustrative case is presented, research summarizing the equivalent efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy is presented, and directions for future development are suggested.

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