TY - JOUR A1 - Kavaler-Adler, Susan T1 - The beginning of heartache in character disorders: On the way to relatedness and intimacy through primal affects and symbolization T2 - International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 27 (No. 4, 2018), pp. 207-218. N2 - This paper studies the interaction of the clinical theories of two major British theorists, Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott. Through three clinical examples, we see how the >Klein-Winnicott dialectic< operates in a significantly developmental fashion to advance and fulfill clinical work. Winnicott’s >object survival< is looked at in developmental conjunction with Klein’s >mourning< as a primary clinical and developmental process. This interaction also captures the essence of working with the aggression of a self that has been traumatically disrupted within its early development. This paper demonstrates how such work leads to the assimilation and grieving of primal object loss, evolving into a >developmental mourning process.< This developmental mourning includes the working-through of an >abandonment depression< in the character-disordered patient. A clinical example in a 1989 essay on >psychic pain< by Betty Joseph is used to set up the clinical challenge of going beyond the symptomatic clinging behavior of developmental arrest, into full psychic birth as a separate other, an Other who can relate to an Other. Conclusively, the subjective visceral affect noted and monitored in its clinical dimensions here is that of human >heartache,< which can also include regret. Y1 - 2018 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-Fromm/frontdoor/index/index/docId/35048 ER -