PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

A M Sandler

Publications and source records attributed to A M Sandler.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

The psychoanalytic legacy of Anna Freud.

This paper presents some aspects of Anna Freud's work in a way that is rather different from the conventional accounts of her contributions. It focuses on some of the factors that I believe have led to her particular contribution to psychoanalytic theory and practice-inevitably, with special emphasis on her work with children. In looking back at Anna Freud's work from today's vantage point, it is clear that she was, as Robert Wallerstein put it (1984), a radical innovator as well as a staunch conservative.

Austria↗
PubMed1994

The past unconscious and the present unconscious. A contribution to a technical frame of reference.

Difficulties inherent in the concept of the unconscious are considered, and a formulation is proposed as a contribution to the theory of psychoanalytic technique. The concepts of the past unconscious and the present unconscious are described, each having its own type of functional organization. The past unconscious can be regarded as acting like a dynamic "template," a structuring organization that gives form to current wishes or wishful fantasies, which are then further modified in the present unconscious before gaining access to consciousness. Finally, the implications of the frame of reference for interpretation, construction, and reconstruction in analysis are described.

Humans↗
PubMed1994

Comments on the conceptualisation of clinical facts in psychoanalysis.

Perception is an active process involving a complex system of perceptual and cognitive structures. Facts reflect the ways in which we organise the data received by our senses, and this organisation is highly selective. The private theories of psychoanalysis play a major role in the organisation of facts and in their conceptualisation. It is important that there should be more attention to clinical theories and technical frames of reference, and as an illustration of this a clinico-technical conceptualisation which has been found useful is presented in some detail. This makes use of the concepts of the present and past unconsciouses, in this way emphasising the topographical dimension which had come to be under-stressed in Freud's structural theory and in subsequent ego psychology. The past unconscious can be regarded as a sort of 'template' (structures, rules, schemata, etc.) developed in the child in the first few years of life. This contributes to the form of fantasies and behaviour arising in the depths of the present unconscious, in which system such representational content is acted on by defences and other mechanisms to prevent 'child-like' content from disrupting the older individual's equilibrium. The censorship between the present unconscious and consciousness is considered, and the view taken that the primary focus of the analytic work is in relation to this censorship. The links between the analytical aim of making previously unacceptable mental content acceptable to the individual, on the one hand, and the roles of construction and reconstruction, on the other, are discussed in relation to psychoanalytic technique.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Theoretical and technical comments on regression and anti-regression.

Following a discussion of the 'classical' formulations on regression and fixation, the view is put forward that the distinction between various types of regression is on the whole superfluous. However, it is important to distinguish between 'latent' regression in the patient's 'present unconscious', the contents of which are defended against and kept from consciousness on the one hand, and 'manifest' regression on the other, in which current versions of developmentally earlier wishes and fantasies emerge overtly in acceptable form in thought and behaviour. The anti-regressive function can be regarded as being operative from early in development, and functions to a greater or lesser extent throughout our daily lives. As a concept it reflects the operation of all the defence mechanisms and manoeuvres which operate to protect consciousness and conscious awareness of behaviour. Because it reflects a general tendency of the mind to defend consciousness from unwelcome content arising in the present unconscious, it is consequently a major source of resistance in analysis. Analytic progress takes place when the patient gains sufficient security in an analysis-syntonic way to allow a progressively increasing capacity for controlled relaxation of the anti-regressive function to take place, and for previously unacceptable wishful phantasies to be tolerated and accepted by the patient. This relaxation of the anti-regressive function is allied to Ernst Kris's description of 'regression in the service of the ego'.

Awareness↗
PubMed1994

Phantasy and its transformations: a contemporary Freudian view.

Over the past fifty years changes have occurred in the theoretical positions of the Contemporary Freudian and Klein groups in the British Society, but fundamental differences remain. This paper considers the meaning of the term 'the unconscious', with particular reference to the censorship lying between consciousness and the Preconscious system--or, in the authors' model, consciousness and the present unconscious. The distinction between the present unconscious and the past unconscious is described. Emphasis is placed on the difference between phantasies in the present unconscious, which exist in the 'here-and-now' and those in the past unconscious, which are for the most part reconstructions based--among other things--on the analyst's theories of mental functioning and of child development. Thus, transference phantasies are phantasies in the present unconscious. The authors go on to emphasise the implications of the distinction between the present and past unconsciouses for analytic work, stressing the need for focus on phantasies and associated conflicts in the present unconscious before turning their attention to reconstruction of the past. Finally, they point to the concept of dialogue with one's introjects (internal objects) as represented in unconscious phantasy, to the stabilising function of (present) unconscious phantasy and to the need to interpret conflict and resistance.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Aspects of the analysis of a neurotic patient.

An account is given of the analysis of a 32-year-old woman who had fears of pregnancy and childbirth. The case report describes the technical approach taken in the analysis of a neurotic patient. The analysis of this patient illustrates the view that the same unconscious fantasies and internal object relationships lie behind the patient's symptoms, character traits and relationships, and can be discerned in the transference.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

The past unconscious, the present unconscious and the vicissitudes of guilt.

The concepts of present unconscious and past unconscious have been introduced in order to provide a useful theoretical schema for comprehending clinical psychoanalytic material. In the present paper these concepts, together with the notion of the second censorship, are made use of to provide a framework for understanding the way in which guilt feelings and the ideas associated with them are dealt with at different levels of consciousness. The technical approach linked with the theoretical ideas in this paper is described, with special reference to the relation between interpretation of the present and reconstruction of the past.

Child Development↗
PubMed1982

Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy of the older patient. A developmental crisis in an aging patient: comments on development and adaptation.

The psychoanalysis of a depressed 69-year-old woman is described briefly. She was seen four times weekly for two years and treated on the couch. The goal of analysis was modified in keeping with the concept of her problem as a developmental disturbance of aging. Here the aim of analysis was not extensive character change, as is usual in treatment of a person with neurotic disturbance, but help in making the necessary adaptive changes in the phase of aging. There was relatively less emphasis on the "archaeological" treatment model of uncovering the predisposing childhood neurosis, and more emphasis on analysis of the patient's current character structure and its underlying dynamics. The patient coped with threats of object loss and narcissistic injury by living through others, both helping and controlling them. The case exemplifies the way in which the analyst dealt with the patient's narcissistic injury of having to come for therapeutic help, the analyst's use of empathy and effort to understand transference and countertransference, and the course and results of the analysis.

Aged↗