Biomedical subjects

B Killingmo

Publications and source records attributed to B Killingmo.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1995

Affirmation in psychoanalysis.

It is argued that recent developments in psychoanalytic theory have prepared the theoretical space for a concept of affirmation and rendered necessary a discussion of the justification of affirmative interventions in clinical practice. Exemplified by a scene from one of Ingmar Bergman's plays, an affirmative intervention is defined as a communication which removes doubt about the experience of reality and thereby re-establishes a feeling of identity. This definition is compared with Freud's explanation of affirmation. Clinically, affirmation may function both as a silent background and as a delimited intervention in the foreground. Affirmative interventions are illustrated by a clinical vignette. The intonation of the voice of the analyst seems to be especially potent in mediating affirmative messages. Affirmation and interpretation address different experiential modes. They are complementary kinds of interventions, and the analyst has to oscillate between the two. In conclusion, the question raised is whether affirmation can repair structural defects ensuing from early affect deficit.

Humans↗

PubMed1990

Beyond semantics: a clinical and theoretical study of isolation.

Theories of Freud, Piaget, Fonagy and Kristeva have been drawn on to argue that the concept of isolation should not be restricted to a delimited defence mechanism associated with obsessional/compulsive neurosis, as is the usual psychoanalytic conception. From a semiological point of view isolation may be seen as a disturbance of the relationship between signifier and the signified embracing affective communication ranging from the most primitive bodily expression via sound and intonation to a semantic level where affects are expressed through the content of words and ideas. As affects isolated on a pre-verbal level are deprived of expression on a semantic-symbolic level, they are not likely to be modified by content of interpretations alone. They can only be fully activated and brought into therapeutic dialogue through the quality of the speech sound of the analyst.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Conflict and deficit: implications for technique.

One of the most challenging theoretical tasks today is to integrate the psychology of deficit with the traditional psychoanalytic conception of conflict. In this paper it is argued that such an integration should take place within a framework of structural organization. By means of the quality of the transference, the analyst has to decide whether an actual piece of clinical material is mainly to be seen as an expression of conflict or of deficit. The paper illustrates how derivatives of deficit may appear in the therapeutic dialogue. When these are about to dominate, the analyst has to switch his strategy from one of unveiling meaning to one of constitution--utilizing interventions of an affirmative type. As the structural level will fluctuate within one and the same patient from one point of time to another or from one area of the personality to another, the analyst has to be in a state of constant receptivity to oscillate between the two strategic positions. It is concluded that even if psychoanalysis has to extend both its conception of psychopathology and its therapeutic strategy, no change in the basic analytic attitude seems necessary.

Adult↗