“Ablation of the Parental Images”: A Secret Core in Charles Rycroft’s Psychoanalytic Thought

Borgogno, Franco; Cassullo, Gabriele

doi:10.1057/ajp.2010.7

Am J Psychoanal

2010

DOI: 10.1057/ajp.2010.7

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“Ablation of the Parental Images”: A Secret Core in Charles Rycroft’s Psychoanalytic Thought

Franco Borgogno

Gabriele Cassullo²

Abstract: This article arises from the need to "present" (that is, to read again in a "present and actual" light) the paper, "Why Analysts Need Their Patients' Transferences" by Charles Rycroft (which first appeared in 1993 and is re-published in this Special Issue), and is therefore strictly connected to the ideas the latter contains. The authors, on the one hand, outline the stages of the journey that took Rycroft to elaborate the concept of "ablation of the parental images", and on the other, retrace his personal "an… Show more

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Cited by 2 publications

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“…Many of the Independents, including Rycroft himself(Borgogno & Cassullo, 2007, would soon focus on this concept(Lomas, 1967, pp. 21-22; Heimann, 1975, p. 468).…”

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Charles Rycroft and the Making of an Independent Psychoanalyst

Cassullo¹

2014

Contemporary Psychoanalysis

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This article explores the work of Charles Rycroft and the potential reasons why it has been unjustly-in the author's opinion-consigned to an obscure corner of the history of psychoanalysis and contemporary psychoanalysis. In the first section, the author traces the origins of the Independent group in Great Britain to which Rycroft belonged. The second section outlines the key stages in Rycroft's private and professional life to provide insight into his development as an Independent psychoanalyst. The final section highlights one of the key ideas that Rycroft bequeathed to us: namely, his theory of the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis.

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“…Many of the Independents, including Rycroft himself(Borgogno & Cassullo, 2007, would soon focus on this concept(Lomas, 1967, pp. 21-22; Heimann, 1975, p. 468).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Charles Rycroft and the Making of an Independent Psychoanalyst

Cassullo¹

2014

Contemporary Psychoanalysis

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Psychoanalysis versus adoption: analytic parenthood and parental countertransference

Guasto

2020

Am J Psychoanal

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As we know, Sándor Ferenczi compared the analytic and adoptive relationships as the psychoanalyst exercises a parental role to some extent. The author notes that a commonality between the adoptive relationship and the analytic one is that if the parental couple is burdened with painful counter-transferential experiences and feelings that have not been worked through, these can pose a danger for the strength of the newly developing parental relationship. In the analytic situation the analyst’s position implies the risk of conflict with the parental internal objects resulting from the primary introjections, especially if the original environment was abusive or severely neglectful. Similarly, the adoptive family is often burdened with revengeful and competitive aggressiveness of their own introjected parental objects, having as a main task to keep unified the pre-adoptive autobiographical memories that were dissociated and interrupted. In such cases it is very important to give the adoptive parents help so as to cope with their difficult “countertransference,” supporting them to reduce their sense of guilt and unsuitability to nurse their children, especially if the adoptive parents feel guilty because of their own infertility. In this paper the author describes two cases concerning both situations, emphasising the clinical risks and the evolutionary potentialities.

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“Ablation of the Parental Images”: A Secret Core in Charles Rycroft’s Psychoanalytic Thought

Cited by 2 publications

References 7 publications

Charles Rycroft and the Making of an Independent Psychoanalyst

Charles Rycroft and the Making of an Independent Psychoanalyst

Psychoanalysis versus adoption: analytic parenthood and parental countertransference

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