Anxiety, symptom formation, and ego autonomy

The Wrecking Effects of Race and Social Class on Self and Success

The literature on success neurosis has expanded in recent years to include a consideration of preoedipal as well as oedipal factors. Typically, success neurosis is considered to be a symptomatic result of complex intrapsychic phenomena, whether they be at the oedipal and/or preoedipal level. Having previously considered that success neurosis can also be determined by internalized representations of "real" factors, such as racism and poverty (Holmes, in press, b) the author here considers how these factors become primary intrapsychic building blocks of success neurosis through their negative impact on the components of success in the self and the ego.

Affects, agency, and self-regulation: complexity theory in the treatment of children with anxiety and disruptive behavior disorders

In an increasingly unsettled and violent world, with swelling numbers of children who are abused, abandoned, or neglected, emotionally if not physically, and an increasing population of aggressive preschool children with anxiety and disruptive behavior disorders who cannot be contained in ordinary settings, psychoanalysts can make a contribution. Early intervention is essential. In very early childhood, new procedural memories for interacting with others and for regulating affects can be formed more easily than they can ever be again. Intervention should aim toward helping the child develop a sense of agency, establish moral standards, assume self-responsibility, and attain the capacity for emotional regulation. The principles of complex dynamic systems can inform psychoanalytic treatment strategies, as demonstrated with five children whose cases are presented.

The place of annihilation anxieties in psychoanalytic theory

Survival-related clinical reports are abundantly found in the works of classical, object-relational, and self psychological writers, but are underrepresented in major theoretical formulations on anxiety. Fears of being overwhelmed, merged, penetrated, fragmented, and destroyed, as contents of unconscious and conscious fantasies, are regularly interrelated with the typical dangers. Fifteen preliminary propositions invite closer study of such apprehensions and provide definitional components. Annihilation anxieties are triggered by survival threat; are found early but can be engendered throughout the life cycle; constitute a basic danger; are residuals of psychic trauma; have specifiable subdimensions; may occur in presymbolic form or be associated with fantasies in conflict/compromise formation; may arise with or without anticipation; may be accompanied by controlled or uncontrolled anxiety; are motives for defense; and may be associated with particularly recalcitrant resistances. The study of annihilation anxieties in relation to the basic danger series has both theoretical and clinical advantages, especially for understanding traumatic, anxiety, phobic, psychosomatic, addictive, narcissistic, borderline, and psychotic manifestations, as well as sexual problems (including perversions), nightmares, dissociative and panic states, and especially difficult resistances.

Object relations, affect management, and psychic structure formation. The concept of object constancy

Object relations are central to contemporary structural theory. This paper first reviews the various ways in which the key concept object constancy has been used. To reconcile the apparent contradictions in definitions, the concept is viewed along a developmental continuum in which each step is defined by its functions. It is proposed that at its most mature stage, a capacity for affective self-regulation is achieved, a capacity that is central to characterological structure formation and optimal adaptation. Possible interferences with the achievement of mature object constancy are briefly explored.

The role of displacement in psychoanalysis

Displacement is a defense mechanism employed by many other defenses and has a different role from all the other defenses. Locating conflicts in a new situation, displacement attempts to find new solutions. Dis-placement often is a re-placement unless it is part of the repetition-compulsion pattern. The paper explores the technical implications that demand special recognition of displacement beyond the usual analysis of the defenses. References are made to new research in the neurosciences.