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affectively integrated images of self and other allowed for an increased capacity for more complex emotional experience. Early preoedipal experiences of maternal constraint and prohibitions produce early images around which the superego is then formed. Freud (1940) described libido as a force that brings together while aggression breaks connections. Jacobson applied these ideas to separation-individuation with libido acting to integrate opposing images of good and bad objects and good and bad self while aggression promoted separateness and differentiated images of self and other, pointing to an integration between classical drive theory and object relations theory. V. Ae. Loewald Hans Loewald was among the Freudian revisionists of 1960’s, 1970’ and 1980’s, who forged a connection between Freudian Ego Psychology and Object Relations Theory to create a psychoanalytic theory that he felt stayed closer to peoples’ experience of their lives. His main concerns addressed the most fundamental assumptions of psychoanalytic theory building, and basic preconceptions about the nature of mind, reality and the analytic process. Loewald believed that Freud postulated two different understandings of the drives. The first was before 1920 with drives as discharge-seeking. The second came with his introduction of the concept of Eros in 1920 in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, where Freud radically altered his definition of the drive as no longer discharge-seeking but rather as connection-seeking “not using objects for gratification but for building more complex mental experiences and for re- establishing the lost original unity between self and others” (Mitchell and Black, 1995, p.190). Loewald’s revision of Freud’s drive theory required a radical reformulation of Freud’s traditional psychoanalytic concepts. While for Freud the id is an unchanging biological force clashing with social reality, for Loewald the id is an interactional product of adaptation rather than a constant biological force. The mind is not interactive secondarily but is interactive by its very nature. Loewald theorized that in the beginning there is no distinction between self and other, ego and external reality, or instincts and objects; rather there is an original unitary whole composed of both baby and caregivers. He proposed that “ Instincts understood as psychic and motivational forces become organized as such through interactions within a psychic field, consisting originally of the mother-child (psychic) unit .” (Loewald, 1971, p118). It is because of statements like these, that French speaking analysts in Canada find Loewald, self identified as an Ego psychologist, exemplary of ‘Third Model’ thinking described below. By putting Freud’s instinct theory and ego psychology together, Loewald’s work can be seen as building a vital bridge between a “one-person psychology” and a “two-person object relations psychology” (See also separate EGO PSYCHOLOGY entry).
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