Biomedical subjects
E Brenman
Publications and source records attributed to E Brenman.
Cruelty and narrowmindedness.
The contention of this paper is that human understanding modifies cruelty, and that in order that cruelty can remain unmodified various mechanisms are employed. The most important processes include the worship of omnipotence which is felt to be superior to human love and forgiveness, the clinging to omnipotence as a defence against depression, and the sanctification of grievance and revenge. In order to avoid conscious guilt, the perceptions of the mind are narrowed to give ostensible justification to the cruelty, and the obviation of redeeming features in the object. The paper explores how these processes operate and how by virtue of projection the analyst's interpretations are perceived as cruel, and how the patient arranges to be locked in this vicious circle. Technical problems of dealing with these forces are explored together with the task of bringing alive the human concern that modifies cruelty.
Separation: a clinical problem.
The paper deals with problems of separation in clinical practice. Various defences are outlined, such as indulgence in loveless sexuality, overeating, excessive intrusiveness, idealizations and paranoid grievances as means of avoiding separation anxiety. The main part of the paper deals with the avoidance of awareness of separation both in and out of the session in a case of clinical depression. An attempt is made to show how the patient arranges for others in his life, including his analyst, to experience the pain of separation. The patient also contended that his objects and analyst could not cope with separation and used omnipotent defences that the patient was intent on exposing. The aim of the paper is to show how the analyst might deal with this problem in clinical practice.
The value of reconstruction in adult psychoanalysis.
Some of the factors that influence an analyst to choose one construction rather than another are explored. Such choices may be based on the analyst's insights and development, or his biases, past training and personal pathology; or the patient's attempts to influence the analyst in a particular direction. Construction may overemphasize the part played by the patient's innate propensities or his environment. Freud's interpretation of the Oedipus myth is re-examined in the light of these thoughts. Reconstruction is considered to be of therapeutic value only through the analysis of the repetition compulsion in the transference. The clinical examples include consideration of the repetition of an early folie à deux phenomenon manifest in the transference. The nature of the internal objects that 'go with' the patient in exploration and distortion of truths is examined. New developments in analysis need to be integrated with creative constructions of the past, forming the foundation of new constructions. The view is held that in times of crisis patients revert to past systems; recognition of this factor implies that the work of reconstruction will be an on-going process after the analysis is terminated, and forms part of the patient's equipment for future self analysis.