Back to Table of Contents
getting angry at someone); and hostile-destructive (revenge, physical violence, e.g.). and drive development overall became to be viewed as shaped in the interaction with ‘the other’ (Kulish 2019). (See also entry INFANTILE SEXUALITY)
IV. E. REACTION AGAINST METAPSYCHOLOGY
IV. Ea. ‘Classical’ Interpersonal, Self and Relational Approaches: Minimizing the Importance of Drives Informed by the methodology of ‘operationalism’, the anti-metapsychological emphasis was developed first in the works of interpersonal/cultural theorists Harry Stack Sullivan (1953), Karen Horney (1941) and Erik Fromm (1941), who proposed that striving for security and the satisfaction of drives are indissolubly linked, but at the same time held that all psychological phenomena were interpersonal in origin ( 1953, 1964). Later theorists following this line include Heinz Kohut (1971,1977), who at first conceptualized self-esteem regulation using drive theory, but later theorized that destructiveness occurs as an ‘aggressive breakdown product’ when circumstances lead to a dissolution of the self-image. In Self psychology, the role of the drives is supplanted by selfobject needs. Endogenous drives play relatively little or no part also in many subsequent Interpersonal and Relational models of mind. Their clinical unit of attention is interpersonal. The contemporary position of some Relational theoreticians, however, grew to be more complex (below). IV. Eb. Merton Gill, George Klein, and “Psychology’ critique of Roy Schafer and Robert Holt The next challenge that influenced conceptualizations of conceptualizations of unconscious and the drives came from within the metapsychological point of view itself. The major contributors to this challenge were: Merton Gill, who renounced the topographical perspective (1963) and then the remainder of metapsychology (1976; 1994); and George Klein (1976). They eventually delineated two psychoanalytic theories: (1) a clinical theory based on indisputable empirical observation; and, (2) a speculative abstract theory. Roy Schafer (1976) proposed an action language that attempted to explain psychological phenomena in dynamic formulations using verbs and adverbs and not nouns or adjectives. In addition, Schafer advocated for the use of language in a manner inclusive of motivational forces and their consequential actions, as action sequences. Roy Schafer’s (1973) and George Klein’s (1973), call for psychoanalysts to ‘liberate themselves from metapsychology’ in favor of ‘clinically validated’ concepts inaugurated
161
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online