Biomedical subjects

R D Gillman

Publications and source records attributed to R D Gillman.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1994

Narcissistic defense and learning inhibition.

This paper presents the case of a gifted scientist, Mr. A, whose inhibitions prevented him from doing creative work. He could learn only when he grasped the material immediately; protracted study was painful and humiliating. The analysis revealed that his early narcissistic grandiosity, engendered by his precocity and parental admiration, persisted through the oedipal phase and then became organized in his character, defending against competitive feelings and castration anxiety. In the analysis, resolution of his oedipal conflicts, both positive and negative, went hand in hand with his relinquishing the narcissistic defenses, which freed him to work creatively. The case elucidates one aspect of work-study difficulties in children.

Defense Mechanisms↗

PubMed1994

Ezra Pound's Rorschach diagnosis.

The 1946 Rorschach protocol of poet Ezra Pound was given blind to three clinical psychologists to see whether interpretations of this historic document would give perspective to the controversy that surrounded his hospital commitment as unfit to stand trial for his treasonous radio broadcasts during World War II. The psychologists found greater psychopathology and defect in Pound's functioning than was generally observed when he was originally tested, and they predicted the psychotic-organic depression that occurred after the poet's discharge 12 years later.

Crime↗

PubMed1992

Rescue fantasies and the secret benefactor.

The concept of rescue fantasies is traced from Freud's earliest idea of the rescue of the mother as the fallen woman to later ideas of ambivalent rescue of the father, siblings, and children. Clinical vignettes from work with children and adults illustrate these points as well as reparative rescue fantasies in response to trauma and narcissistic hurt. The contemporary family romance myth of the secret benefactor as rescuer is described. An analytic case presentation explores the narcissistic-masochistic and the positive and negative oedipal meanings of the secret benefactor rescue fantasy. Application to countertransference enactments in the analyst is suggested.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

The oedipal organization of shame. The analysis of a phobia.

The affect of shame in its development and transformations plays an important role in the oedipal period, alongside guilt, as a source of unpleasure and a signal affect. Earlier experiences of shame, associated with loss of control, are now incorporated into the new meanings derived from oedipal conflicts. The analysis of a phobic woman shows how the shame of exposure, experienced by the patient in terms of body concerns, involved complex compromises representing impulses, defenses, and fantasies. Signals of shame anxiety helped to ward off guilty fantasies of love and hostility by motivating character traits in which even ordinary caring was renounced. In the analysis these traits were represented in a transference of defense.

Female↗

PubMed1987