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Randomized controlled trials have reported psychoanalytic psychotherapy to improve longer-term post-treatment outcomes in patients with treatment-resistant depression. In this case study, we examine the therapy process of a female trial participant diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression. Structured clinical assessments indicated that the patient's level of depression remained unchanged during and after treatment. Over the course of the therapy, she repeatedly broke away from important others and finally also from the therapy itself, which we linked to the impact of earlier experiences of abandonment on her internal world. In the discussion, we present a variety of reflections that were put forward by the authors during a series of case discussion meetings. Some of these reflections relate to how the inner world of this patient might have triggered a negative therapeutic reaction and a destructive pattern of repetition. The interpretative stance, in which the therapist interpreted this reaction as indicative of a psychic conflict and linked this conflict to the therapeutic relationship, seemed to be experienced by the patient as unhelpful and persecutory. Other elements that were brought up include basic distrust, lack of symbolization and trauma in the patient, as well as the constraints of the research context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mersin University School of Medicine Lokman Hekim Journal of History of Medicine & Folk Medicine is the property of Mersin University School of Medicine and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores the person of David (ca. 1010–1097 bce), king of Israel and Judah, especially his personal, familial, and professional undoing through his adultery with Bathsheba and the killing of her husband, Uriah the Hittite. After situating this event in the corpus of Davidic narratives, the paper examines David's inner world—the David with Bathsheba—by drawing on the contribution of the British object relations theorist, W. R. D. "Ronald" Fairbairn. This paper argues that David relinquished his central ego to the castigations of an active inner critic and to the excitement of his libidinal ego. David, caught between these powerful forces, sabotaged his own reign, violated Bathsheba, became a murderer, and participated in his personal and familial demise. Men and contemporary leaders can learn from David's undoing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freud's publication of The Ego and the Id sparked a diverging set of psychoanalytic models - ego psychology, structural conflict theory, Kleinianism, object relations theories, Lacanianism, etc. - each of which attempted to deal with the clinical limitations of his first topography in regard to unconscious guilt, negative therapeutic reactions and primitive character organizations. This paper attempts to look back on these developments from the perspective of contemporary, post-Freudian psychoanalytic theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changes in the pedagogy of research supervision in the university context are now reflected within the practices of theological seminaries and accredited colleges. A neglected analytical framework that could illuminate the supervisory relationship is provided by Winnicott's Object Relations Theory and Bion and Diamond's Organizational Psychodynamics, as they interconnect identity, stress and creativity – factors that are germane to the researcher experience. Object Relations also parallels faith development. Given the significant personal investment demanded by research, a crisis of identity for the religious student is simultaneously a crisis of faith. Conversely, a Christian faith experience could sustain the research journey through the appropriation of divine Grace. Some suggestions are provided as to how this could be manifested within the research culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is considered one of the most difficult disorders to treat due to the diversity of its symptomatology, the difficulties of establishing and maintaining a relationship with patients and their rather rigid functioning. Freud made basic findings that described the nature of the disease, however in psychoanalysis there has been no truly novel theoretic approach to OCD ever since Freud's seminal work. In this present theoretically study, I am examining OCD-symptoms primarily through object relations theory focusing on one group of certain key theoreticians and their followers. My summary of psychoanalytic literature on OCD is based on the works of Freud, Ferenczi and Klein. As a second step, from an object relational point of view, beside paranoid-schizoid and depressive, I am postulating a third position under the name obsessive position, what we can assume as a specific constellations of object relations with anxieties, defence mechanism and patterns of thinking. The specific characteristics of this position are discussed in the study. I am making a clear distinction between the obsessive ego-state and the realistic ego-state and discuss the differences between the two states. Through the introduction of the obsessive ego-state I am suggesting the definition of OCD as a disorder of personality organization and ego-organization. In the study, I therefore, argue for the application of a modified psychoanalytic methodology in the case of OCD-patients. I am offering a glimpse into this technique through a segment from a session of psychoanalytic therapy with an OCD-patient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present psychobiography took up the three main psychoanalytic conceptions of love to illuminate the psychological development of famed experimental writer William Seward Burroughs (1914–1997). The study found evidence of all three concepts of love in the subject's life strategies: (1) Love as cathexis was present in Burroughs' fascination with centipedes and other vermin that appeared in his dreams and which symbolised, in part, his terror over early childhood traumas as well as his concomitant struggle to integrate sex with intimacy. (2) Love as eroto-philiac fusion was observed in Burroughs' unstable and even exploitative relationships with others. This tendency was most salient in Burroughs' abortive attempts to seduce straight men, as well as in his failed efforts to be a traditional husband and father. (3) Reparative love became the subject's primary mode of interaction late in life. The study showed that, in his declining years, Burroughs was able to overcome partially the maladaptive strategies of his early life through his numerous pet cats, upon whom he projected aspects of his past romantic partners and friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to analyse two texts belonging to confessional lyric: on the one hand, the song "Romance de la plata" from the album Un hombre rubio (2018) by Christina Rosenvinge, also collected as a poem in Debut (2019); on the other, an untitled poem by Maria-Mercè Marçal, whose first verse is "Aquella part de mi que adorava un feixista...," present in the "Daddy" section of Desglaç (1989). I will focus on the motif of the father's death and, in relation to this, on the claim to address past facts when it is too late to do so in person, having been the father fictionally projected as an authoritarian person and even a sympathizer of Francoism. Both texts demonstrate the ability of lyrical subjects - incarnated generically - to get involved in dialogue and negotiate both separations and connections with the Other, which in this case is the father figure. This involvement allows them to understand certain parental aspects without being subordinated to the authority or the seduction that they may have felt in earlier times. Thus, the sense of fictionalized female identity consists of a more diffuse idea of the limits of the self, assumed in relational and intersubjective terms. Finally, in "Romance de la plata" and its paratexts, Rosenvinge makes her own image prevail, while in "Aquella part de mi que adorava un feixista..." Marçal represents the deceased father through a plurality of images, escaping from his domain when he turns the lyrical subject and himself into children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to present this short story as a turning point in Weiß’s literary work, as his departure from expressionist influences that ushers in his existential period. The theoretical basis for an analysis of the plot draws from psychoanalytical theories of object relations (e.g. works by Fairbairn, Guntrip, Seinfeld and others), especially in connection with the so-called schizoid personality. It is in the relationality of the disillusioned protagonist that the interpretive key is sought, a key to the departure from the expressionist cult of the individual, replaced in Weiß’s late work by a series of heroes searching for their identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay interprets Gertrude Stein's 1934 interview on NBC radio and its surrounding historical archive to unfold a powerful phantasy about radio audience as it simultaneously connects Stein to a new mass audience and frees her from it. In this phantasy, radio audience becomes the state of listening itself which takes place in the protected space of the studio while broadcasting becomes analogous to writing. The essay then turns to Theodor Adorno's contemporaneous work on 'radio physiognomics' in order to analyse his attempt to separate radio from its social ideals and the uses to which it has been put, and to supplement Adorno's Kleinian–Ferenczian approach to introjection, or the interiorisation of the microphone and the studio both in production and reception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the psychotherapy of personality disorders, the limitations of the self and of interpersonal functioning that underlie all personality pathology are both a main treatment focus and a major obstacle in doing so. These limitations are most intensely manifested within the primary aspect of the psychotherapeutic relationship. The core of personality disorders–identity diffusion–refers to a self, tormented by insignificance and annihilation, and by disconnectedness and mistrust. The infant will have internalized a mental state called the alien self that persists alongside an agentive self. This split leads to two domains of primitive dyadic object relations: one dominated by projection of epistemic yearning onto an idealized object, the other by projection of self-rejection onto a demonized object. The therapist remains an alien object in this way, making cooperation within therapy momentarily or even structurally impossible, with a negative impact on the working relationship, and a greater role of the realistic relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mediterranean Journal of Gender & Women's Studies (KTC) / Akdeniz Kadın Çalışmaları ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet Dergisi is the property of Mediterranean Journal of Gender & Women's Studies (KTC) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The current study examines the psychotherapeutic treatment of an early-20s Caucasian male diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder. The patient was treated with 56 sessions of psychoanalytic psychotherapy utilizing an object relations approach. Treatment aimed at decreasing the patient's anger, anxiety, depression, and improving emotion regulation. Another focus of this patient's treatment was helping him gain insight into the nature of his unconscious predictions and interpretations of others' behavior in the hope that he may begin to experience relationships with greater emotional connection and less conflict. Treatment outcomes were measured using Reliable Change Index analyses, which indicated a significant reduction in anxiety, depression, anger, and emotion regulation difficulty between the beginning of treatment and the most recent session. The patient also demonstrated increased mentalization abilities and fewer anger outbursts throughout the course of treatment. During the sessions surrounding a therapeutic rupture, the patient's emotion regulation abilities worsened temporarily; therapy shifted during this time to a more supportive analytic framework. An object relations-focused theoretical background and clinical treatment implications are discussed in relation to this case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the results of the application of the theories of D. Winnicott and K. Horney on historical data. The data was acquired by analysis of the book texts published in the range of 1918 and 1943 by Emanuel Moravec – a Czech collaborator in World War II. The total number of pages of the analyzed materials counts as 4062. The data was completed by the major life events of Moravec, as they were pictured in his biographies. Using the object-related and neo-psychoanalysis theories the paper outlines: a) possibilities of application of the depth theories on historical data; b) results acquired by application of the mentioned theories; c) possibilities of psychobiography to explain the behaviour of historical popular figures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attention that the Swiss modernist writer Robert Walser pays to domestic violence can be regarded as exceptional. So why does child abuse still remain a blind spot in the scholarship on Walser? This article discerns techniques that Walser uses to render family violence invisible, such as multiperspectivism and changes of tonality. These aesthetic techniques gain in depth through comparison to concepts from object relations theory: Sándor Ferenczi's "identification with the aggressor" and Wilfred R. Bion's "attacks on linking." With family brutality, the problem of perspective is not purely formal but intrinsic, because part of the violence of domestic violence is the exhausting degree of affective mobility it demands—a capacity but also a vertiginous obligation to change tones and perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article surveys Lauren Berlant's ideas concerning the emotional functioning of the human being in the context of neoliberal capitalism and argues for their limitation resulting from Berlant's focus on the societyideology axis while overlooking the significance of the early bonds in the development of one's emotional regulation. Contrary to the multiple Marxist interpretations of culture, Berlant emphasizes that politics is effective by shaping human fantasies of desire rather than merely producing ideology. In the case of the United States this mechanism mainly refers to creating a collective hope for a "good life", which is carried on within the paradigm of the Weberian protestant ethics: through hard work, perseverance and self-reliance, that is according to the myth of the American dream. Simultaneously, authors working within the field of developmental psychology demonstrate the key significance of human early attachments for the shaping of one's self-trust and emotional balance, which enables a more critical attitude towards the cultural norms of happiness and makes it possible to find satisfaction not through responding to the fantasies generated by culture, but through relationships with other empirically existing human beings. The article thus maintains that works by psychologists such as Donald Woods Winnicott, John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth fill in a significant void in Berlant's writings and give hope for an overcoming of the "cruel optimism" impasse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to a review and discussion of psychoanalytic theories of the formation of autoaggressive and especially suicidal behavior phenomena. Freud's first observations of self-objectifi-cation in melancholic depression were followed by contributions from object relations theorists and self psychology, emphasizing primarily the role of narcissistic rage and ego-vulnerability. In addition to the above theories, the paper also analyzes the views of M. Klein, O. Kernberg, and H. Rosenfeld. The peculiarity of this work is that it covers little-known in Kazakhstani psychology concepts of autoaggressive, namely suicidal behavior formation, such as P. Fonagy's theory of mentalization, influence of family dynamics, role of shame and self-esteem fluctuations. Particular attention is paid to the consideration of the emergence and development of and, in particular, suicidal tendencies. The distinction between reactive suicide and chronic suicidal preoccupation is highlighted. In the final part of the article, the actual data of empirical testing of some of the concepts described are presented. On the basis of the studied material, the author offers generalized conclusions that will help to better understand and structure the available information on this issue, as well as justify further study of the problem of autoaggressive behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ljetopis Socijalnog Rada / Annual of Social Work is the property of Pravni Fakultet Sveucilista u Zagrebu, Studijski Centar Socijalnog Rada and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the exploration of Yoga's potential to Incite feelings of aliveness and authenticity in women recovering from Anorexia Nervosa, and Women with eating disorders (EDs) with a lack of Interoceptive Awareness and a diminished capacity to both experience and recognize emotions.

The new African diaspora has emerged from the recent migratory movements of Africans. This population is tasked with finding effective methods of adjusting to new environments. Through the psychoanalytic lens of object relations, this article explores the role of religion in shaping migration experiences of the new African diaspora. It considers the psychological processes that intersect with religion to influence migrant adjustment. First, drawing from object relations theory, the role of early relational experiences in shaping self-concept is conveyed. Second, ways are explored in which religious phenomena can support transitional processes within a migration context. Third, the object relations framework is used to review some of the psychological tasks involved in the migration experience (e.g., processing of attachment disruptions, expansion of cultural identity). It is theorized that a migrant's relationship with the sacred represents a transitional phenomenon that contributes to positive adjustment via a post-migration experience. The article concludes with some practical considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object Relations Theorists find it insufficient to base Freud's theory of personality on the concept of drive and build their theory of personality on the relationship between the infant and the object. Theorists, who claim that the first object is the mother and argue that the nature of the relations between the mother and the baby directly affect the baby's self and mental development, divide the baby's developmental stage into paranoid-schizoid position and depressive position and point out that feelings such as malicious envy and jealousy are innate and exist in the subconscious. . Nahit Sırrı Örik, who is known for his success in creating villainous heroes in Turkish literature, places people who act with malevolent emotions at the center of the story "Eve Düşen Yıldırım". This situation makes it necessary to interpret the behaviors of the people in the story within the framework of self-development, and to find the psychological foundations underlying these behaviors. People's actions pave the way for an explanation based on the relationships established with the mother, the first object on the way to individuation. In the study, the people in Nahit Sırrı Örik's story "Eve Düşen Yıldırım" will be examined in the context of the Object Relations Theory and the ideas of Melaine Klein, one of the pioneers of this theory, on the motives of envy, jealousy and aggression, and the effect of the psychological source of thoughts and behaviors on self development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Descartes's philosophy of the passions is central for an understanding of seventeenth-century ideas of affects and emotions and for the history of emotions overall. But does it have bearing today? In this article, I argue that Descartes raises the question of how the infantile relation to the maternal body influences the emotional life of the adult, a question that is still relevant for psychoanalysis and neuropsychology. In the philosophical scholarship on Descartes, the passages which pertain to the infant, or the fetus, and its alleged 'confused thought', are often quoted to demonstrate the challenges to dualism that are inherent in his own writings. However, I argue that these discussions point also to the complexity of the development of affects and emotions. In my reading, I show that Descartes's ideas of the passions can be seen as precursory to psychoanalytic theories of object relations. This opens the way for a new trajectory of research involving fantasy, instincts and repression in the Cartesian analysis of emotions and affects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From its beginning, psychoanalysis has taken an interest in literature –as a field to study and seek inspiration. How can literature and psychoanalysis enrich and illuminate each other? This text discusses methods and theory in psychoanalytic literary criticism. Contributions from object relations theory, the significance of the researcher's subjectivity, and issues of transference are emphasized. The difference between the literary and the clinical on the one hand and the challenge of reductionism on the other are imminent concerns, and as such are elaborated. Abundant access to theory and methods, awareness of the researcher's subjective involvement in the research process, and a determination to ensure articulation of meaning as it springs from the texts are emphasized as ways to counteract reductionism. Examples from psychoanalytic literary criticism and insights of authors on the underpinnings of their creative writing illustrate how literature and psychoanalysis meet in interest for the unconscious as it is embedded in language; how language can capture us in an emotional presence, even when words seem lost or absent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of a verbal or written contract has been employed in many different modalities of treatment as a means of establishing the expectations and parameters of treatment. Traditionally, the contract is seen as serving a somewhat utilitarian purpose: setting up the practical conditions of treatment and providing a containing frame for the patient. Contracts, however, can extend to establishing agreed-upon goals of treatment, anticipating obstacles that may arise in the treatment and clarifying how they will be dealt with should they arise, and clearly defining the roles of the patient and therapist in a way that aids the exploratory process once the treatment has begun. Importantly, the mutually agreed-upon contract serves as a useful roadmap to keep the treatment focused and on track. In this article we will emphasize how the treatment contract can facilitate in-depth understanding of the patient's internal world, particularly when challenges to the contract are enacted by the patient. We will begin by briefly summarizing the functions of the contract and then focus on the key role of the treatment contract in furthering the exploratory process of the patient's dynamics as expressed in the transference/countertransference matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in the understanding of personality pathology have contributed to an emphasis on the core of personality pathology as deficits in self-functioning and interpersonal functioning at different levels of severity that must be assessed for clinical intervention. In concert with these conceptual and empirical advances, transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP), an empirically supported psychodynamic treatment for borderline personality disorder, has been in constant development with extensive clinical use. This article describes an object relations model for conceptualizing and assessing levels of personality organization, a transdiagnostic approach to personality pathology, and related treatment modifications, thus expanding the utilization of TFP beyond borderline personality disorder to the full range of personality dysfunction. The core of this treatment approach is a sequential interpretive process between patient and therapist. This process takes place within the context of a structured treatment frame tailored to the unique individual with problems in self-functioning and interpersonal functioning in his/her particular environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new ICD-11 introduces a fully dimensional classification of personality disorders representing a fundamental change in personality disorder diagnosis with major implications for clinical practice and research. The new system centers on the evaluation of the severity of impairment in the areas of self and interpersonal functioning. This focus on personality functioning converges with long-standing psychoanalytic/psychodynamic conceptualizations of personality pathology. In a detailed conceptual analysis and review of existing empirical data, points of convergence and notable differences between major exponents of the psychodynamic tradition—object relations theory as developed by Kernberg et al. and the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis—and the ICD-11 system are critically discussed. Personality functioning can be considered to be the current “common ground” for the assessment of personality disorders and constitutes a considerable step forward in making personality disorder diagnosis both clinically meaningful and suitable for research purposes.

The new ICD-11 introduces a fully dimensional classification of personality disorders representing a fundamental change in personality disorder diagnosis with major implications for clinical practice and research. The new system centers on the evaluation of the severity of impairment in the areas of self and interpersonal functioning. This focus on personality functioning converges with long-standing psychoanalytic/psychodynamic conceptualizations of personality pathology. In a detailed conceptual analysis and review of existing empirical data, points of convergence and notable differences between major exponents of the psychodynamic tradition—object relations theory as developed by Kernberg et al. and the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis—and the ICD-11 system are critically discussed. Personality functioning can be considered to be the current "common ground" for the assessment of personality disorders and constitutes a considerable step forward in making personality disorder diagnosis both clinically meaningful and suitable for research purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) brings a different way of thinking about personality disorders (PDs) compared to the current ICD-10 model. The focus of the ICD-11 model conceptually returns to the psychodynamic tradition of understanding PDs, historically connected with the definitions of borderline states according to the object relations theory. The emphasis on the pathology of identity and interpersonal relationships, supplemented by specific constellations of personality traits, offers a plastic view of the patient’s personality and his difficulties. In addition, the almost absolute turn away from ICD-10 PD categories is aimed at destigmatizing PDs. In this article, the ICD-11 model is presented in the perspective of almost 80 years of development of borderline psychopathology. The individual components of the diagnosis of PO according to ICD-11 are connected with relevant theoretical conceptualizations and compared with the Alternative DSM-5 Model for PDs. Implications for clinical practice are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For about thirty years, between 1940 and 1970, a strange entity made a passing and hesitant appearance on the radar of the West's intellectual history. Homo schizoid found its decisive articulation in the writings of Ronald Fairbairn and Harry Guntrip, two psychoanalysts who are barely known outside of professional circles. By now, this figure is all too often either forgotten or, even worse, confused with its psychotic relative, the schizophrenic. Giorgio Agamben and his commentators have made no serious effort to investigate the schizoid position in their attempt to imagine a politics that transcends the idea of relation and an ethics freed from the need for recognition. So this paper is guided by three questions: What does the notion of homo sacer have to do with homo schizoid? Is Agamben's approach to life as something that is never defined but only divided somehow connected to the split or skhizein which gives the schizoid its name? Finally, will the schizoid persist as a personality disorder, or can it become the harbinger of a destituent power? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using D. W. Winnicott's object relations theory in conversation with Lewis R. Rambo's scholarship on conversion, this paper explores the transformation of the biblical figure of Job. The first part of the paper explores the origins and meaning of the "psychodynamics of conversion" and highlights the paradoxical nature of conversion. Rambo's stage theory is discussed. Wolfgang Iser's reader-response theory is identified as inviting an object relations perspective on Job. Drawing on Winnicott, the paper then describes Job's experience of loss, transformation, and confession—a process of conversion—and compares it to Rambo's stages of conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) can be considered as a paradigmatic disease for the understanding of repairing processes enacted to restore internal regulation when the body is defective. The present study aims at providing an object relations informed narrative analysis of the illness experience of people affected by PH through a qualitative phenomenological analysis of the illness narratives of 12 adult Italian patients with PH. Four thematic areas (each consisting of three subthemes) were identified that respectively deal with progressive stages of illness story: coping with early symptoms (meaninglessness, minimization, self-blame), searching for a diagnosis (helplessness, burden, refusal of medical advice), reacting to diagnosis (shock, resignation, acceptance of limitations) and facing the future (medical benefits, faith in God, support from patients' associations). Findings make a significant contribution to the exploration of people with PH's several subjective challenges in coping with a defective body from symptom onset to after diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal for Educational & Vocational Guidance is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Galleries and museums house objects and artefacts of potential benefit to the practice of psychodynamic psychotherapy. This paper reflects on the notion of art as therapy, the ability of artistic elements to address the unconscious, and the utility of developing a phenomenology of psychodynamic art therapy. The case of Jonathan ('fictional case composite') is described, i.e. his psychotherapy as prompted and furthered by the use of gallery images. According to the psychoanalytic theory of Freud, the language of words, and that of images, may well correspond to the workings of conscious and unconscious. The therapeutic experience of art is likely to include psychoanalytic phenomena (reverie, reflection, reverberation, the uncanny) that may be redirected to self-awareness, personal change and growth.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) remains a controversial diagnosis, with lack of consensus on essential features of the disorder and its boundaries. Within the framework of object relations theory (ORT), core organizing, structural features define NPD and provide a coherent conceptual framework for understanding clinical features of the disorder. In the ORT model, both grandiose and vulnerable presentations of NPD are characterized by a specific form of self-pathology, reflecting the impact of a grandiose self-structure in the setting of borderline personality organization. The grandiose self-structure provides some stability of self-functioning but does not confer the self-regulatory capacities provided by normal identity formation and is reliant on maintaining a sense of the self as exceptional. We compare the ORT model of NPD to diagnostic criteria in the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) of the DSM-5, highlighting significant correspondence between the two models as well as conceptual differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The antisocial and violent behaviors of cult‐like religious groups (CRGs) and the maladaptive social consequences of their activities suggest clinical or character pathology and invite diagnostic and dynamic formulations of their members' personalities. The current study utilized secondary reports in the commercial media about CRG members, combined with the lived experience method of two of the authors. The resulting core characteristics of CRG members were then classified following the alternative DSM‐5 alternative model for personality disorders. The overall clinical picture is then discussed in terms of the shared psychodynamic sources that undergird the behaviors of the antisocial‐obsessive‐compulsive personality disorders. By tracing the personality characteristics into their unconscious sadomasochistic conflicts, these insights shed light on the paradoxical frequent co‐occurrence of antisocial and obsessive‐compulsive characteristics among extremists, in contrast to the patient population at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the concept of psychotic personality organization. I relate psychotic personality organization to observations and speculations about psychotic transferences and to behavioral developments during the treatment of chronically psychotic patients (particularly those with schizophrenia). The overwhelming theoretical perspectives used are twofold: (1) object relations theory and (2) a model integrating neurobiological advances in the study of psychosis with contemporary psychodynamic perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]