This paper is about Fordham's contribution to Jung's studies on the self. It opens with the epistemological dilemmas inherent in the subject, before moving on to an account of Fordham's research into the incompatible ways Jung used the term 'self'. There is a description of Fordham's model, which covers his concepts of the primary self, deintegration, reintegration, self objects, self representations, and individuation in infancy. There is a section which discusses areas in which Fordham apparently diverged from Jung, including how these were reconciled by Fordham's developmental approach. These areas include the definition of the self as totality or archetype, the mind-body relationship, the 'ultimate', the origins of the archetypes, and the primary self, the self and the sense of self. It concludes with an extension to Fordham's outline of a resolution to Jung's incompatible definitions. This draws upon the concept of the central archetype of order and how its unfolding is evidenced towards the end of the first year of infancy.
In this paper I try to show that inherent in healthy development are emotional experiences that are the stuff of trauma. Failure to reintegrate these experiences means that they can serve as a resonating board for difficulties in later life, adding to their traumatic impact. Focusing on global changes that occur at the end of the first year, I exemplify these developments with an infant observation and show how a six-yearold boy's failure to integrate them contributed to his experiencing a normal life event as a trauma. I then offer clinical material from the analysis of a man to demonstrate how later life events resonated with early experience associated with this period. All are linked to a complex pattern of object relations I have come across clinically, whereby feelings of grief associated with an idealized object are split off from feelings of grievance against an object experienced as persecutory because of its perceived superior status.
This paper concerns the self as Fordham came to conceive it after a conceptual analysis of Jung's use of the term. Fordham identified a contradiction in Jung's usage, and resolved it by reserving 'self' for a definition of the psychosomatic entirety of the individual, and using a separate term for referring to expressions of the self in human experience (e.g. symbols). Fordham tentatively suggested that the latter be termed the 'central archetype', although this was neither developed nor dropped. I explore the value of this term from a developmental perspective and, more specifically in terms of the deintegration of psyche out of an early psychosomatic unity. This draws upon infant research and an observation of a 14-month old boy. Finally, further developments are briefly described and illustrated, whereby pre-symbolic expressions of the central archetype become symbolic and come to reflect what was for Jung, the 'ultimate', 'Formation, Transformation, Eternal Mind's eternal recreation'.
This paper examines the Jungian concept of identity and distinguishes it from projective identification and participation mystique, which also refer to nondifferentiation between self and object but involve projective mechanisms. Clinical work by Fordham and a psychoanalytic infant observation are used to illustrate early perceptual operations defined by experimental researches. These operations are understood to be expressions of the primary self which manifest themselves before the structuring necessary for normal projective identification. This paper attempts to describe an intersubjective experience between mother and baby that allows for their separate ways of relating, but does not depend on projective mechanisms that can exist only after there has been adequate development.
Over three decades ago, John Bowlby argued for psychoanalysis to seek beyond its own parameters if it was to maintain its claim to be a science. Since then there has been a wealth of relevant research from various fields. While this has been instrumental in the development of my own work, this paper concerns learning from the patient. The paper begins with a premise: interpretative analytic work requires three-dimensionality (self, other and object). Although interpretative work may be ingrained in our professional identity, this triangulation may or may not exist in our patients in any stable way. The paper continues with a brief developmental account of how early archetypally-shaped shifts in the infant's field of interest establish the experiential components of three-dimensionality. From there, observational and clinical material with a toddler and a young boy describe how early relational deficits hindered their capacities for three-dimensionality. Yet both were able to engage with the therapist and to become active in the creation of three-dimensionality within their own minds. Implied in this work are considerations for working with patients for whom interpretations do not work. Michael Fordham's comments on 'working out of the self' are linked with the art of what we do.
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