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M Torsti

Publications and source records attributed to M Torsti.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

At the sources of the symbolization process. The psychoanalyst as an observer of early trauma.

This paper presents a psychoanalytic study of mothers and infants, concentrating on very early traumatization and its impact on the symbolization process. This can be traced in the analysis in the destruction of freedom of association and the symbolization process, leading to petrifications, somatizations, or acting out. A theory of the origin of the symbolization process is developed by observing the kinesthesia of traumatized infants. This approach, based on years of observation, offers a perspective on the landscape before representation, before the object has become represented. The theory takes account of forces from the area of the unconscious as described in "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" (Freud, 1920). A new view of the complexity and multi-dimensionality of the mind emerges from this study. The author tries to demonstrate that the mind is multi-dimensional and that our theory of the mind therefore needs the complexity of UCS/PRC/CS. If psychoanalytic theorizing is to remain faithful to the forms and movements of the associative mind, it should not be simplified into linear causalities, as it would be if we were concerned only with object representations.

Adoption↗
PubMed1994

The feminine self and penis envy.

This paper examines the integrative role of inner genitality in the formation of penis internalisations, which form part of the feminine self. Penis envy, operating simultaneously with the anxiety arising from a realisation of the introitus under the influence of inner genitality, organises functioning inner and outer female penis structures. This three-dimensionality of inner genitality, penis envy and anxiety for penetration is the condition of a functioning femininity. In the light of an analytic case history, the author follows the thawing out of a phallic defence position and the awakening of the obstructed genitality. Phallicity is seen as a traumatic defence structure, which prevents the development of functioning penis identifications. In the phallic mental world, the penis takes on an idealised and concrete meaning. Its desirability is denied, and the woman excludes her inner genitality from her relationship to it as an object. When most obstructed in her womanhood, a woman becomes a phallus herself. She lives in an imitative identity, in which the internalising psychic functions have come to a standstill. In such a mind, the ultimate purpose of defence is to avoid annihilation anxiety.

Adult↗