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Das Leben meistern
(1996)
Grey makes a claim for countertransference similar to one Millán makes for transference, namely that Fromm's work can be seen as providing a more inclusive view of countertransference. Grey builds his case examining Fromm's views in regard to the unconscious, the motivational structure of character and countertransference. Grey points out that Fromm's view of the unconscious differed in several ways from Freud's. Fromm saw the unconscious as containing primitive and irrational elements, but also as the source of penetrating insights that transcend the strictures of society. Moreover, Grey sees Fromm as a modern thinker. Fromm had little use for Freud's energetic metapsychology. Fromm conceived of the unconscious in terms of processes, avoiding the danger of reification. Grey notes that Fromm explicitly discussed the >filtering< role imposed by language and social norms that limit the range of human experience. Grey notes that Fromm's theoretical views are more consistent with contemporary models of the mind such as that of Lazarus (1991). According to Grey, Lazarus's work (1991) describing the importance of the appraisal function of emotions legitimizes the role of intuition as a valid and important component of the analyst's repertoire in understanding and responding to patients. Grey argues that Fromm's revision of Freud's dualistic drive model also contributed to the analyst's use of self in work with patients by calling attention to the importance of social and constructive motives. Fromm's model of human nature was an important corrective over Freud's view of man as essentially evil. Fromm's motivational theory supports the analyst's intuitive responses as trustworthy guides in the therapeutic process without having to debunk altruistic motives as sublimations or reaction formations. According to Grey, what this all adds up to is that the use of self advocated by Fromm differs markedly from earlier views of countertransference. This is another aspect of Fromm's contribution that has not yet received the recognition it deserves in current efforts to examine the intersubjective nature of the psychoanalytic dialogue (Stolorow et al. 1987) Despite the enormous advantages over the Freudian model, Fromm's ideal of development, the >productive character,< is in Grey's estimate, misleading. Actual studies of productive personalities show, according to Grey, that >the very circumstances that favor one particular productive attribute tend to discourage another.<
Contributions of Erich Fromm
(1996)
The importance of nocturnal dreams is discussed along the lines of Lorentzen's arguments. The risk that they are under-evaluated is stressed. Some contradictory aspects of Freud's Interpretation of Dreams are discussed and a tentative attempt is made to integrate them with the thinking of Bion and Meltzer in the sense of creation of meaning. Montague Ullman's technique of working with dreams in groups is also very briefly sketched and discussed in this context. Finally the capacity to dream and dream-space is commented on with the help of Khan and Kant.
Children in Violence
(1996)
Borderline desire
(1996)
The borderline personality unconsciously seeks emotional turbulence because this complex of affect is the shape of the object of desire. Whether these people were intrinsically disturbed as infants, or, whether the early object world was itself disturbing, they knew the maternal object as disruptive effect. This effect then became the shape of the object, so, in seeking turbulence they are in fact constituting the primary object. As painful and disturbing an event as this is, it is nonetheless desired and finding themselves in states of distress is unconsciously gratifying. This person cultivates >borderline objects< which evoke turbulent frames of mind. Such an object usually has an escalatory potential to it, so that the borderline may turn to ordinary distressing facts of life—environmental pollution, harassment of workers in the work place—and transform these facts into self stimulating objects. They bring about a toxic response which constitutes the object of desire. The borderline personality often seeks moments of misunderstanding with the psychoanalyst paradoxically enough in order to feel closer to the clinician. If he feels that he is bringing about irritation or distress in the analyst, the patient feels that he and the analyst are sharing the primary experience together. By persistently interpreting to the patient the unconscious desire of his character the analyst can effectively deconstruct the analysand's pathological attachment and help the patient to understand a complex dynamic that has always put this person at acute odds with himself, let alone with others.
Mauricio Cortina evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of Fromm's model of human nature and motivation by contrasting Freud's and Fromm's approach to the problem. Fromm provided a nonreductionistic model of motivation by exploring emergent (new) evolutionary properties that characterize the human species. This emphasis on what is evolutionarily new is the greatest strength of the model. However, the strength is associated with a significant weakness. While recognizing specifically new motivational structures, Fromm underestimates the importance of evolutionary and developmental continuity and transformation. The >eviction from paradise< biblical metaphor captures the essence of Fromm's view of the human condition. Fromm thought that a key factor in development was the struggle to overcome a regressive pull to return to the lost security provided by the mother figure or its symbolic equivalents such as blood ties, tribalism, and nationalism. Cortina presents an alternative evolutionary and developmental model that is in keeping with Fromm's emphasis on the importance of evolutionary transformations in humans, but does not accept Fromm's premise that as a species we are uprooted from nature. The evolutionary perspective accounts for the plasticity of human adaptation – that Fromm attributed to a combination of a relatively weak instinctive endowment and the development of the neocortex – as the result of a neotenic process (the retention of juvenile characteristics into adult life). This neotenic interpretation, together with a developmental perspective derived from attachment theory, questions the paradigm of symbiotic unity that informed Fromm's view of development and still remains an influential model of development in many other psychoanalytic schools of thought. Research based on attachment theory shows that under normal conditions security is never >lost< but rather it is found, or more precisely it is constructed (Sroufe 1986). This construction between the infant and its primary caregivers continues over a very protracted period of human development when it gradually becomes internalized, providing a sense of continuity in human development. Under favorable conditions ties with parents are never relinquished but become transformed as new intimate relationships to peers and lovers develop, supplying a new source of emotional security. The chapter concludes with some clinical implications of this >secure base< model of development.
Archaic Sadism
(1996)
A reflective appraisal.
(1996)
A Commentary
(1996)
A Commentary
(1996)
Sandra Buechler's commentary provides an interesting counterpoint to Mar-golies's chapter. She observes that Fromm believed work should be an expres-sion and a vehicle for self-development and that this urge transcends historical circumstance. She questions whether the categories we create hinder or en-hance our understanding. She believes the self-developer category may have blinded the therapist to other aspects of the treatment. Her own reading of the clinical material would have led her to focus on different aspects of the patient, such as his narcissism and his sadistic sexual fantasies. Margolies would argue that these pathological elements were declining as he worked through old com-promise solutions and developed life-affirming passions in work and love-particularly as he strengthened the positive strivings of his social character ori-entation.
>Umenie verit<
(1996)
The distinction between the having mode and the being mode seems to be the basis of E. FROMM's clinical approach, which finds its main application in the center-to-center relatedness between analyst and patient. Analysts can understand a patient because they experience what the patient experiences. The dialog is based on reciprocally communicated emotional and conceptual responses and reactions; both identities come into play. The psychoanalytic session can save itself from the having mode by addressing the patient's living memory, which represents the past relived in the present, according to the being mode. Case material from a psychoanalytic session with a 31-yarr-old woman is included. (German and Spanish abstracts.)