Back to Table of Contents
as the regulating agent. Freud equated the binding of psychic energy necessary for delay with the secondary process. The authors suggest that it is the mental representations that bind the energy by countercathexis or by neutralization. To acquire ethical beliefs requires the capacity to symbolize, to evoke the absent object, to anticipate the future, to conceptualize, and communicate by speech, all of which are explained by mental representations through identification with parental figures and internalization of their ethical standards. Incorporation, the instinctual analogue of the taking in of stimuli, may be expressed in the fantasy of introjection. The introject is a mental representation formed by a complex interaction of ego functions. Identification is based on fantasies of incorporation and projection of object representations. Internalization is limited to mental representations of function related to self- representation and independent of object representations. Cognition is dependent on the ability to form mental representations. The uniquely human capacity to evoke in consciousness an absent object is due to the high degree of organization of the mental representation that is available, perhaps through some type of continuous cortical activity. VI. B. Further Evolution of the Concept in Developmental Theory and Research Mid 1970’s – 2000’s VI. Ba. Margaret Mahler: Self and Object Representation in the Context of Separation- Individuation As a developmental theory introduced by Margaret Mahler (Mahler, Pine and Bergmann 1975), Separation-Individuation consists of two complementary processes: 1. Separation , consisting of those intrapsychic processes that result in the formation of mental representations of the self as separate from the mental representation of the mothering figure ; and 2. Individuation , which consists of those intrapsychic processes by which the child attains intrapsychic autonomy, thereby distinguishing his/her individual characteristics, so that the self is not only differentiated from the object, but also represented intrapsychically as a series of self representations. The Separation-Individuation Phase, 4-6 months to 36 months, consists of several subphases: The first is ‘ Differentiation/Hatching ’, 4-6 to 9 months, when the child begins to differentiate the representation of the self from the mother/other by moving from the tendency to mold herself to her mother’s body to a preference for more active, self-determined exploration. During the second ‘ Practicing ’ subphase, from 10 to 15-16 months, the child practices upright locomotion to increase physical separation from the mother and to continue the differentiation process . This is the period during which Mahler situates the actual
785
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online