The Independent or “Middle” School

1. The Independent or “Middle” School Geoff Goodman, Ph.D.

2. I. Major Figures of the Independent School • William Fairbairn • Donald Winnicott • Harry Guntrip • Michael Balint • John Bowlby

3. II. Shared Assumptions of the Independent School • The primacy of object-sucking over instinct gratification • Ego and objects are always connected by an affective link • Drive energy is not inherent in the existence of the ego and objects • Helplessness or infantile dependence on the mother is the primary state of being, not primary narcissism

4. Continued… E. Separation anxiety is the primary subject matter of psychopathology, not castration anxiety and the Oedipal conflict F. Deficiencies in caregiving environment, not conflict between drives and society, are the ultimate cause of psychopathology

5. Continued… G. Development proceeds not in psychosexual stages but from infantile dependence to mature dependence H. Psychopathology is derived from an accommodation to maternal caregiving, not a distortion of it through the cycle of projection and introjection I. The integrity of the self determines drive modulation, not drive intensity

6. Continued… J. Aggression is not a constitutional drive but emerges from frustration with a seductive or unresponsive, unmirroring caregiving environment K. Treatment consists of unblocking the natural process of development toward mature dependence to overcome caregiving deficits rather than making interpretations to integrate intrapsychic conflicts

7. Continued… L. Infant prewired for adaptation and adjustment rather than initially psychotic and later depressed (a developmental achievement) M. Repression consists of making unconscious certain aspects of caregiver-infant relationship rather than exclusively traumatic memories or forbidden impulses

8. III. The Theory of William Fairbairn • The infant begins with a whole, harmonious ego • The ego becomes split from this initial whole 1. libidinal ego a. connected to exciting object 1) repository for hopes of connection and gratification 2) idealized aspects of frustrating experiences with object b. experiences of seduction and unfulfilled needs by real object

9. Continued… 2. antilibidinal ego • connected to rejecting object 1) repository of anger and wish to withdrawl from objects to protect from pain of abandonment 2) devalues aspects of rejecting experiences with object and relations with all objects b. experiences of rejection and abandonment by real object

10. Continued… 3. central ego • connected ideal object (moral defense) and real object in external world 1) basis for all external relations with real people 2) energy devoted to relationships with real objects siphoned off by relationships to exciting object and rejecting object

11. Continued… 4. infant develops these objects in relation to both mother and father, which are integrated into one rejecting object and one exciting object

12. Continued… C. Libido is adhesive and becomes attached to “bad” objects--rejecting and exciting objects--to compensate • bad objects internalized to exercise control over them • bad objects internalized to preserve goodness of the real object and keep alive the hope that if the infant or child changes, love will be forthcoming

13. Continued… 3. primary motivation is human contact, not pleasure 4. psychosexual stages of libidinal development represent different modes of relatedness to objects 5. all psychosexual conflicts are reduced to oral conflicts

14. Continued… D. Aggression is not a primary motivational factor • reaction to frustration of libido (antilibidinal) • aggression expressed through antilibidinal ego against rejecting object and exciting object (withdrawal of real relations) • antilibidinal ego can be directed against therapist’s awakening of hope, represented in the transference as an exciting object

15. Continued… E. Three developmental phases 1. infantile dependence (relations with real and compensatory objects) 2. transitional phase 3. mature dependence (renunciation of attachment to rejecting and exciting objects and real objects)

16. Continued… F. Cure--renunciation of these attachments and restoration of split-off ego to original integrity • conflicts among these three object relations create schizoid personality • establishment of relationship with loving object helps to heal these schisms in the psyche

17. IV. The Theory of Donald Winnicott • The infant begins as a mother-infant unit • The infant wishes for fulfillment of needs 1. mother presents fulfillment as infant wishes for it 2. moment of illusion of infantile omnipotence

18. Continued… C. Primary maternal preoccupation wanes • gradual disillusionment of infant’s omnipotence • introduction of objective reality D. Pace of disillusionment 1. transitional object cushions fall from omnipotence by creating potential space between the real world and the infant’s omnipotent world

19. Continued… 2. infant permitted to destroy transitional object because it is not totally under infant’s control, which survives attacks and therefore becomes real--outside infant’s omnipotent control

20. Continued… 3. impingements--maternal intrusions that prematurely accelerate disillusionment process • withholding of gratification during excited affect states • interference with infant’s capacity to be alone--infant’s formlessness and unintegration in quiescent affect states

21. E. Formation of false self • hiding of true desires and innate vitality from oneself and one’s caregivers • impingements force self to focus on environment rather than internal subjective experience • a feeling of alienation from oneself results • false self protects integrity of true self

22. Continued… F. Cure--not interpretation but manner in which the analytic setting provides missing parental provisions and fills early developmental needs

23. V. Critique of the Independent School • Overemphasis of the role of the environment and underemphasis on the role of genetics • Greater likelihood of boundary violations in clinical practice (see Ferenczi) • Naïve reconstruction of infancy in the adult mind • Little empirical evidence (reliving birth process on couch)