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Biomedical subjects

J A Arlow

Publications and source records attributed to J A Arlow.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Methodology and reconstruction.

The challenges presented in treating patients with so-called borderline and narcissistic personality disorders have revived interest in the subject of reconstruction, because many analysts believe that these difficulties originate in the events of the earliest preverbal phase of development. They feel that contributions from direct observation of neonates and knowledge gained from "infant psychiatry" may enable analysts to effect reconstructions that previously appeared to be only speculative. The methodological problems in applying this approach, however, may lead to foisting upon clinical observation preconceived paradigms of pathogenesis. Reconstruction depends upon a disciplined interpretation of the dynamic record of the patient's associations, which demonstrate how the past is embedded in the present. The validity of the reconstruction depends upon the application of appropriate and disciplined psychoanalytic methodology. Reconstructions constitute a special form of interpretation and are part of the psychoanalytic process.

Borderline Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1990

The psychoanalytic process.

Analysts differ in how they conceptualize the psychoanalytic process, according to their understanding of the psychoanalytic theory of mental functioning in general and the nature of pathogenesis in particular. Emphasizing that psychoanalysis is a psychology of mental conflict, the authors see the psychoanalytic process in terms of the dynamic interplay between the manifestations of the patient's unconscious and the analyst's interventions. What analysts communicate to analysands serves to destabilize the equilibrium of forces within the mind, leading to the analysands' growing understanding of the nature of their conflicts and how they deal with them. Psychoanalytic process, accordingly, cannot be distinguished or separated from psychoanalytic technique.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1979

The genesis of interpretation.

Opinions regarding the significance of the analyst's response to his patient's productions differ. This response is only one of many steps by which the analyst understands his patient's productions. In this paper, I have suggested a rationale for the process of the origin of insight. There is a split in the analyst's functioning, corresponding to what takes place in the patient. Through a transitory identification with the patient--empathy--the process of intuition is facilitated. The analyst conceptualizes the clinical data outside of consciousness. The end product is the analyst's inner response, made conscious to him through introspection. The analyst's response is a form of inner communication. It has to be made consonant with the patient's material according to disciplined, cognitive criteria before being formulated into an interpretation.

Awareness↗
PubMed1978

Pyromania and the primal scene: a psychoanalytic comment on the work of Yukio Mishima.

In the writings of the Japanese novelist, Yukio Mishima, primal scene experiences and derivative expressions of them recur persistently. The element of fire figures prominently in connection with the wish to wreak vengeance on the persons originally observed in the act of intercourse. As a destructive, attention-compelling spectacle, fire is a particularly suitable vehicle for this purpose. In Mishima's works, revenge takes the form of retaliation in kind: parental figures, or their surrogates, are put into the position of having to observe the child, or substitutes for him, in the act of sexual infidelity. These observations as well as clinical reports in the literature suggest some insights into fantasies of pyromania. They also make possible certain speculations concerning Misima's turbulent life and dramatic suicide.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Symposium on The Ego and the Id after fifty years. The structural hypothesis--theoretical considerations.

Freud reformulated his model of the psychic apparatus because certain clinical observations did not fit into the earlier framework of his theory. In the new theory, he emphasized the role each element plays in psychic conflict. Because Freud philosophically was committed to a materialistic, nonteleological, biologically based theory, he carried over into the new formulations some of the metapsychological assumptions of the earlier theory. It is suggested that this transposition is responsible for some of the confusion concerning the application of the structural theory. It is proposed that if a more strict usage of the concept of metapsychology with more precise conceptualization is employed, some of the problems connected with the application of the structural theory may be overcome.

Ego↗