Narratives,self-cohesion,and the patient's search for meaning

Serious clinical problems have emerged as a result of inconsistencies in current psychoanalytic paradigms. The inconsistencies lie in the assumptions behind developmental and clinical theories. This paper discusses the problem and proposes an alternative conceptualization based on a theory of the development of meaning and of the organization of the meanings of experience into self narratives.     

Critical review of the concept of the borderline child

The concept of the borderline child is reviewed in this paper. Questions are raised about the generally held assumption that a similarity exists between the dynamics of borderline children and those of borderline adults. It is suggested that no data is currently available to substantiate such a view. Further questions are raised about the assumption that the etiology of the disorder in childhood is based on poor or improper nurturance. A working definition of the concept of the borderline child is proposed that is free of preconceptions as to the etiology of the dysfunction. A hypothesis is presented for further investigation that at least some borderline children's etiology may be found in the presence of a minimal brain dysfunction or a severe learning disability.     

Mindsharing: Transitional Objects and Selfobjects as Complementary Functions

This paper introduces the concept of “mindsharing” as an overarching construct that encompasses the familiar clinical phenomena described by the concepts transitional objects, auxiliary ego functions, selfobject functions, intersubjective sharing, and others. The common denominator in each of these is that one person uses others psychological functions for the purposes of maintaining self-cohesion. A case is presented to illustrate some of the implications of this position.

Parent loss and childhood bereavement: some theoretical considerations

This paper attempts to review critically the major psychoanalytic positions on the impact of parent loss during childhood. An effort is made to review systematically the issues of the loss of a parent as a love object, the loss of a parent as a narcissistic injury, children's cognitive understanding of death, and the relationship between loss and trauma. Two questions are raised by our efforts to understand the impact of the loss of a parent through death on children under ten years of age. First, what psychological tasks do children confront and what modes of coping do they use to deal with such an event? And, second, does such an event invariably lead to some pathological result for the child, or may its effects be normalized in the course of time? Although these questions may be seen as empirical questions needing to be answered through the collection of data that would confirm or negate the hypotheses generated, the questions are always posed within the context of a theoretical framework that colors how data is collected and which data is collected. By reviewing the theoretical positions, we come to the conclusion that no single approach is sufficient to explain the complexity of the impact of the death of a parent on a child. We propose that since no integrated conceptual framework presently encompasses all that needs to be explained, it is necessary to use a multivariant approach. Such an approach may be helpful in generating hypotheses and in beginning the task of systematic data collection.     

Book reviews

Clinical Social Work Journal -