Beyond the Symbiotic Orbit: Advances in Separation-Individuation Theory: Essays in Honor of Selma Kramer, MD - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0367606461 ISBN 13: 9780367606466

Publisher: Routledge, 2020

Synopsis

In this tribute to Selma Kramer, eminent child analyst and colleague and close friend of the late Margaret Mahler, senior analysts explore the continuing relevance of Mahler's separation-individuation theory to developmental and clinical issues. Editors Salman Akhtar and Henri Parens have grouped the original contributions to Beyond the Symbiotic Orbit into sections that reevaluate Mahler's theory.

Section I is a timely reassessment of Mahler's working model from the standpoint of contemporary clinical and research findings. It includes comparisons of Mahler with Winnicott and Kohut, and commentaries on the status of separation-individuation theory in relation to psychosexual theory, early ego development, and observational infancy research. Section II addresses the contribution of separation-individuation theory to our understanding of pathogenesis. Neurosis, severe character pathology, psychosomatic phenomena, eating disorders, and sexual perversions are among the topics of specific chapters. The final section explores the role of separation-individuation theory in the treatment of analysands of different ages and with different kinds of psychopathology; it also considers separation-individuation theory with respect to specific aspects of the treatment process, including reconstruction, transference, and termination.

A fresh reappraisal of a major perspective on early development, Beyond the Symbiotic Orbit is a fitting testimonial to Selma Kramer, who has played so important a role in elaborating Mahler's theory. Following from Kramer's own example, the contributors show how separation-individuation theory, in its ability to accomodate ongoing clinical and research findings, is subject to continuing growth and refinement. They not only advance our understanding of Mahler's working model, but pursue the implications of this model in new directions, underscoring the many areas of exploration that separation-individuation theory opens to us.

About this title

About the Author

Salman Akhtar, M.D., is a faculty member of the Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute, and Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University. He is editor of New Psychiatric Syndromes: DSM-III and Beyond (1983) and coeditor of The Trauma of Transgression (1991).

Henri Parens, M.D., is Training and Supervising Analyst, Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute, and Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University. He is author of Dependence in Man (1971) and The Development of Aggression in Early Childhood (1979) and coauthor of Aggression in Our Children (1987).

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0367606461
• ISBN 13: 9780367606466
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 472
• Editor: Akhtar Salman