Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T06:26:05.242Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Basic Psychoanalytic Concepts: I. The Extension of Clinical Concepts Outside the Psychoanalytic Situation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

J. Sandler ,
C. Dare  and
A. Holder
J. Sandler
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London, S.E.5
C. Dare
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry
A. Holder
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This paper aims at introducing a series of articles on basic psychoanalytic concepts. Many concepts which have developed within psychoanalysis have been extended for use within other frames of reference and in very different settings. If psychoanalytic concepts have validity such extension should be possible and useful, but it seems inevitable that in the process of extension changes in their meaning will occur, and it is one of the purposes of this series of papers to examine a number of concepts from this point of view. The philosophical implications of change of meaning when concepts are transferred from their original context has recently been discussed by a number of writers, e.g. Kaplan (1964) and Schon (1963). In this connection psychoanalytic theory presents special problems of its own. It is often regarded as being a completely integrated and consistent system of thought, but this is far from being the case. Psychoanalytic concepts are not all well defined, and changes in their meaning have occurred as psychoanalysis has developed and its theories have changed. We hope to show some of these changes in the papers which follow. Further, the same term has been used with different meanings even at the same point in the development of psychoanalysis. A prime example of this is the multiple meaning of the term ego (Hartmann, 1956), or of terms such as identification and introjection (Sandier, 1960). We find a situation existing within psychoanalysis at the present time in which the meaning of a concept is often only fully discernible from an examination of the context in which it is used. The situation is complicated still further by the fact that different schools of psychodynamic thought have inherited (and then modified for their own use) much of the same basic terminology.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 116 , Issue 534 , May 1970 , pp. 551 - 554
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1970 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arieti, S. (1959). American Handbook of Psychiatry. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bleuler, E. (1911). Dementia Praecox oder Gruppe der Schizophrenien. Leipzig, (transl. Dementia Praecox or the Group of Schizophrenias. New York: International Universities Press. 1950).Google Scholar
Eidelberg, L. (1968). Encyclopaedia of Psycho-Analysis. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Eissler, K. R. (1953). ‘The effect of the structure of the ego on psychoanalytic techniques.’ J. Amer. psycho-anal. Assoc, 1, 104–43.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1901). The Psychopathology of Everyday Life , in Standard Edition, 6, London: Hogarth.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1915). ‘Observations on transference-love’, in Standard Edition, 12, 159–71. London: Hogarth.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1921). Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego , in Standard Edition, 18, 69–143. London: Hogarth.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1923). The Ego and the Id , in Standard Edition, 19, 3–66, London: Hogarth.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1925). An Autobiographical Study , in Standard Edition, 20, 3–74. London: Hogarth.Google Scholar
Greenson, R. R. (1965). ‘The working alliance and the transference neurosis.’ Psychoanal. Quart., 34, 155–81.Google Scholar
Greenson, R. R. (1967). The Technique and Practice of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 1. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Hartmann, H. (1956). ‘The development of the ego concept in Freud's work.’ Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 37, 425–38.Google ScholarPubMed
Hell, D. (1969). ‘Psychiatric education during a period of social change.’ Brit. med. J., i, 205–209.Google Scholar
Jones, E. (1953). The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 1. London: Hogarth.Google Scholar
Jung, C. G. (1907). Ueber die Psychologie der Dementia Praecox: Ein Versuch, Halle a. S. (transl. The Psychology of Dementia Praecox, in Collected Works, 3, London, 1960).Google Scholar
Kaplan, A. (1964). The Conduct of Inquiry. San Francisco: Chandler.Google Scholar
Laplanche, J., and Pontalis, J. B. (1967). Vocabulaire de la Psychanalyse. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Moore, B. E., and Fine, B. D. (1967). A Glossary of Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts. New York: American Psychoanalytic Association.Google Scholar
Rycroft, C. (1968). A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. London: Nelson.Google Scholar
Sandler, J. (1960). ‘On the concept of superego.’ Psycho-anal. Study Child, 15, 128–62.Google Scholar
Sandler, J. (1969). On the Communication of Psychoanalytic Thought. Leiden: University Press.Google Scholar
Schon, D. A. (1963). The Displacement of Concepts. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Wolberg, L. R. (1967). Technique of Psychotherapy (2nd ed.). New York: Grune and Stratton.Google Scholar
Zetzel, E. R. (1956). ‘Current concepts of transference.’ Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 37, 369–76.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.