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thinking is Solms’ suggestion that the motivation or pressure for actions as reflective of a basic need constitutes the drive , so that there are as many drives as there are affective systems .
IV. Fb. Joseph Fernando – Contemporary Ego Psychology Perspective: Zero Process Drive Joseph Fernando (2009, 2012) introduced the idea of the zero process as a way of conceptualizing post-traumatic mental functioning, alongside the primary process and the secondary process, as one of the three major ways the mind organizes itself. In later works Fernando (2018a, 2018b, 2023) developed the concept of a zero process drive and zero process defenses, the interaction of which leads to forms of drive/defense conflicts and compromise formations analogous to, but differing from, drive/defense conflicts involving the primary process and secondary process (id and ego). Fernando (2012, 2018b, 2023) noted that while many authors had described and discussed specific forms of post-traumatic mental functioning (e g., Bion, 1962; Winnicott, 1974; De M’Uzan, 2003), a more detailed ego psychological analysis of what happens during and after trauma can yield further insights, including about the drive to repeat. At the height of trauma there is a shutting down of many higher-level ego functions such as the integrative and coordinating functions, as well as symbolization. He states that as a consequence of these specific deficits, post-traumatic memories, while having the basic quality of memory of being retained over time, in most other ways behave more like present experiences or future expectations. As an example, zero process memories cannot be scanned back and forth as regular memories can be, but by contrast once evoked run their course outside of the person’s control, as do external experiences. In their “just happening” or “about to happen” character zero process representations and structures present as independent centers of action and initiative – the most striking of these being the alters of dissociative identity disorder (DID) but also, as an example of more common zero process structures, introjects. Fernando (2018b, 2023) conceptualized this continuous push to turn zero process memories into experiences as the zero process drive. He states that it is this drive that gives zero process structures such as alters, introjects, and the superego not just the feeling, but the reality, of being independent centers of initiative. Fernando (2023) suggests that the drive to repeat trauma stems not from the death drive but is part of a normative repair process in which the zero process memories left after trauma push to actualize so that they can finally properly fully happen and become part of the person’s past. In bland trauma (Furst, 1978, Fernando, 2023) this process of belatedly constructing the unconstructed traumatic experience through repetitive dreams and reliving over many months, goes to completion, and the traumatic zero process memories become more regular memories of the past. But in many other instances the repetition is cut short by dissociation, repression, and other defenses as the reliving becomes too overwhelming. This sets up the situation of a continuously acting but never satisfied drive to actualize the post traumatic zero process memories as full present experiences. In contrast to the libidinal and aggressive drives
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