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Biomedical subjects

J A Arlow

Publications and source records attributed to J A Arlow.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Methodology and reconstruction.

The challenges presented in treating patients with so-called borderline and narcissistic personality disorders have revived interest in the subject of reconstruction, because many analysts believe that these difficulties originate in the events of the earliest preverbal phase of development. They feel that contributions from direct observation of neonates and knowledge gained from "infant psychiatry" may enable analysts to effect reconstructions that previously appeared to be only speculative. The methodological problems in applying this approach, however, may lead to foisting upon clinical observation preconceived paradigms of pathogenesis. Reconstruction depends upon a disciplined interpretation of the dynamic record of the patient's associations, which demonstrate how the past is embedded in the present. The validity of the reconstruction depends upon the application of appropriate and disciplined psychoanalytic methodology. Reconstructions constitute a special form of interpretation and are part of the psychoanalytic process.

Borderline Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1990

The psychoanalytic process.

Analysts differ in how they conceptualize the psychoanalytic process, according to their understanding of the psychoanalytic theory of mental functioning in general and the nature of pathogenesis in particular. Emphasizing that psychoanalysis is a psychology of mental conflict, the authors see the psychoanalytic process in terms of the dynamic interplay between the manifestations of the patient's unconscious and the analyst's interventions. What analysts communicate to analysands serves to destabilize the equilibrium of forces within the mind, leading to the analysands' growing understanding of the nature of their conflicts and how they deal with them. Psychoanalytic process, accordingly, cannot be distinguished or separated from psychoanalytic technique.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1987

The dynamics of interpretation.

The patient's productions are a dynamic record of the conflicts of the past as they are recapitulated and re-experienced in the present. Much can be learned by closely studying the immediate effect of the analyst's interventions. Interpretation, especially of transference phenomena, will upset the equilibrium which has been effected and will enable the patient to understand how unconscious fantasies from the past continue to influence his perception and reactions in the present. Interpretation is a continuing process, unfolding in logical sequence. Transference may be an expression of the patient's resistance to recognizing an unconscious wish toward the original object.

Conflict, Psychological↗
PubMed1986

Psychoanalysis and time.

Psychoanalysis is fundamentally related to time because it is an effort to understand how disturbances in the present are determined by events in the past. Technically, we know that the patient who is reporting immediate perceptions is not aware of the passage of time, but he becomes self-conscious as undesirable elements threaten to appear in his associations. Time is not sensed by direct awareness, nor is it an agent of action or events. Various functions of the ego influence how time is experienced consciously, leading to phenomena such as déjà vu, a sensation of timelessness, misjudgment of time duration, the experience of premonition. Psychoanalysis more than any other discipline sheds light on the coexistence of past, present, and future, as influenced by unconscious fantasy thinking. The analyst's understanding of the patient's associations is guided by temporal factors such as context and contiguity, succession of similar or opposite elements. Basically, the self is a time-bound concept; identity implies that a self is the same entity at different points in time. There is a deep-seated rebellion against the tyranny of time, beginning with need frustration in the infant and culminating in the knowledge that man is destined to lose the struggle against death.

Awareness↗
PubMed1986

The poet as prophet: a psychoanalytic perspective.

The poet spins a public fantasy, created from his own private daydreams and speaking to the unconscious fantasies of his audience. He presents a socially acceptable form of expression of forbidden wishes and conflicts. A process of mutual exculpation is set up between the poet and his audience. For a special group the work of the poet may also make possible the alleviation of pathogenic anxieties. An examination of the play, The Beard, indicates how an artist may intuit and articulate changes in sexual morality. The poet rebels against the constraints of society, thereby helping his audience to rebel without guilt. He may be the herald of a changing morality, and even more, his art may become an instrument for such change.

Conflict, Psychological↗
PubMed1985

Some technical problems of countertransference.

There are several aspects of the psychoanalytic interaction that foster the emergence of countertransference. First is a persistent identification with the patient, based primarily on the sharing of unconscious fantasies. Then there is the evocative power the patient's material may have upon latent unresolved conflicts in the analyst. Finally, the analytic setting itself may evoke a broad range of countertransference responses. Particular attention must be paid to those interventions of the analyst which represent attempts to divert his own and the patient's attention from emerging derivatives of the conflicts. There are many clues that should alert the analyst to the possibility of interfering countertransference.

Countertransference↗
PubMed1984

Disturbances of the sense of time with special reference to the experience of timelessness.

Disturbances of the experience of time are examined, with emphasis on the effects of the vicissitudes of the sense of self, affect, unconscious fantasies, and ideas concerning death. The manifest experience is interpreted as a derivative of unconscious, conflict-laden fantasies. Disturbances of the experience of time may be regarded as specific types of affective states, pleasurable or unpleasurable, the quality of the experience being determined by the nature of the underlying unconscious ideational content. Two experiences of timelessness are analyzed, in which the sense of timelessness was determined by the wish to extend time indefinitely. Many elements have been condensed into this basic wish which, as in a dream, was momentarily experienced as already realized.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Scientific cosmogony, mythology, and immortality.

Some current scientific theories of cosmogony demonstrate significant similarities to the cosmological theories of mythology and of certain religions. The notion that the universe originated in a specific cataclysmic explosion raises the mental construct of a center of the universe. This concept plays an important role in mythology and is related to the idea of the cyclical renewal of time. Such concepts, both scientific and mythological, serve as reassurance against the fear of extinction. Aspirations to immortality re-emerge in disguised form in the search for life elsewhere in the universe. Some of the cosmological theories resemble metaphorical elaborations of childhood concepts of procreation.

Astronomical Phenomena↗
PubMed1981

Theories of pathogenesis.

Theories of pathogenesis can be influenced by shared unconscious fantasies. This may determine the speedy enthusiasm with which some theories are accepted. In keeping with primitive, pleasure-seeking trends, it is appealing to blame illness on others and to view pathogenesis in terms of the intrusion into the self of some alien, noxious agent. These ideas can be seen in certain current theories that ascribe pathogenesis to inadequate, unempathic mothering. Such theories influence psychoanalytic technique. Analysis becomes a form of replacement therapy, in which the analyst facilitates normal development by serving as an appropriate object. This approach may gratify unconscious needs in analyst and analysand alike. The attempt to isolate one specific pathogenic factor as crucial fails to do justice to the complexity of pathogenesis and may lead to the failure to recognize the role of unconscious conflict and to analyze resistances.

Fantasy↗
PubMed1980

Symposium on object relations theory and love. Object concept and object choice.

Any considerations of object relations theory and love requires a clear understanding of how the term, object relations, is used. In this contribution the concept of the object as a mental representation is emphasized. Developmentally, the evolution of the object cannot be separated from the vicissitudes of the drives. Sensorimotor experience is metaphorically assimilated in terms of pleasure-unpleasure components. Since the object concept develops in this context, it is inextricably linked to the vicissitudes of the drives. In later experience, these become organized in terms of persistent unconscious fantasies that ultimately affect object choice and patterns of loving. These are multiple determined and are influenced by contributions from all levels of development, predominantly integrated under the aegis of the oedipus complex.

Aggression↗