Citation

Kavaler-Adler S. Am. J. Psychoanal. 2006; 66(3): 239-259.

Affiliation

Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, 115 East 9th Street, 12P, New York, NY 10003, USA. susan@kavaleradler.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11231-006-9020-8

PMID

16969702

Abstract

This study proposes through a case illustration that psychoanalytic patients who can process both aggression and loss through a mourning process are able to free themselves from pathological self attack when the object relations work of attachment, psychic holding, and separation transpires. In the case of Helen discussed here, transformation through a "developmental mourning process" results in the evolution of powerful psychological capacities for interiority, self agency, and interpersonal compassion. This developmental mourning process is endowed with the assimilation and psychic fantasy symbolization of aggression.

Language: en