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psychology’ (an instinctual motivational theory such as Freud’s topographic theory) and a ‘two-person object relations’ psychology, as was also begun in ego psychological developments. His work is also noted as foundational to relational theory that developed in the 1980s in the United States (Greenberg and Mitchell, 1983). His integrative and transformative work also makes him a father of the contemporary “American Independent Tradition” (Chodorow, 2004). Furthermore, his ideas also resonate with the “Third Model” conceptualizations (see the separate entries of THE UNCONSCIOUS, OBJECT RELATIONS THEORIES and CONFLICT). Examples of some of these complex developments are specified further below.
III. Bba. Specific Examples of Elaborations and Extensions 1960’s – 2000’s
Charles Brenner (1964, 1981, 1982, 1991) and Jacob Arlow (1964,1980, 1987) broadened Freud’s notion of the psychic formation that arises out conflict between the structures of the mind: id, ego, and superego. They proposed that virtually all psychic outcomes, e.g., dreams, character, fantasies, free associations, were a product of conflict. Every observable piece of behavior becomes a derivative of underlying conflict. According to Brenner, even the superego is a compromise formation, or a cluster of compromise formations born out of conflict. In Brenner’s thinking (1981, 1982, 1991, 1994), everything in psychic life is a compromise formation , a combination of the gratification of drive derivatives (an instinctual wish originating in childhood), of unpleasure in the form of anxiety and depressive affect associated with the drive derivative, of defenses [that] function to minimize unpleasure, and of superego functioning (guilt, self-punishment, atonement, etc.). No thought, no action, no plan, no fantasy, no dream or symptom is ever simply one or another. Every behavior, feeling or thought is multiply determined by all of them (Papiasvili, 1995). This particular extension developed into what is today known as ‘ Modern Conflict Theory ’ (see the separate entries CONFLICT, and THE UNCONSCIOUS). Jacob Arlow (1980, 1987) places unconscious fantasy and unconscious fantasy function at the center of investigation of intrapsychic conflict. While Freud viewed unconscious fantasy as a derivative of unconscious wish, Arlow sees it as a compromise formation that contains all components of structural conflict. Arlow stresses the persistent influence that unconscious fantasies have on every aspect of an individual’s functioning; including the spheres relatively conflict free. In Arlow’s view, unconscious fantasy provides a mental set that organizes perception and cognitive functioning in general. Unconscious fantasy determines how we perceive the external and the internal world, how we interpret what we perceive, what and how we remember, and how we respond to it. Unconscious fantasies shape our character traits, determine our behavior, our attitudes, produce our symptoms, and are at the heart of our professional interests and love relationships. Throughout development, the essential narratives of the unconscious fantasies endure, though their manifestations undergo endless transformations resulting in different ‘editions’ (Papiasvili, 1995).
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