The child's sense of existence and the fatal attraction of identification
TL;DR: In this paper, the widening and modification of the sense of existence in relation to the unconscious processes of identification is discussed, and Ferenczi's thought, which deals with the feeling of not-existing in some children, helps us to go into depth in understanding their difficulties and pathologies.
Abstract: This paper gives special emphasis to the widening and modification of the sense of existence in relation to the unconscious processes of identification. In our ‘post‐modern’ society there are some parents who, while taking care of their children, use subtle projective identification against them, so as to produce in them a sort of pathological introjective identification, which denies their Self. Ferenczi's thought, which deals with the sense of ‘not‐existing’ in some children, helps us to go into depth in understanding their difficulties and pathologies.
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24 citations
01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: It is shown how school-‐age children with Cystic Cystic Fibrosis, as well as others, see how the world around them changes, including bracketing, peer evaluation, and the importance of knowing your peer’s background and values.
Abstract: School-‐age children with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) possess valuable knowledge about themselves. They have experience and ability to offer insight about living with CF. Previous studies, exploring the perceptions of CF children, give little attention to eliciting and listening to their voices. Also, traditional data collection methods limit children from participating in research. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe how school-‐age children with CF see themselves in the world they live. The study utilized qualitative description methodology. Symbolic Interactionism served as the researcher’s philosophical lens. It is a perspective that seeks to understand the social world of others, as they perceive it. Photo elicitation was used as the primary data collection method. Each participant was asked to take photographs about “What it is like to be you”. Photographs were then used to stimulate and guide an audio-‐recorded interview and make a photo book for the child to keep. Data were analyzed using Boyatzis method of inductive thematic content analysis. Sixteen children with CF between the ages of 8 to 11 were purposively recruited from the Southeastern United States. Data saturation was achieved after 13 interviews. Rigor was maintained by a variety of ways including bracketing, peer evaluation, and member checking. Five themes emerged from the data Me Being Me, My Medicine and Treatments, My Family, My Friends and Other Key Relationships, and My World. Findings revealed that life does not revolve around CF, but instead centers on “me being me” and living a normal life. Additionally, photo elicitation empowered participants to be authors of their own stories, and promoted communication between them and the researcher.
10 citations
Additional excerpts
...These findings are supported by a study reported by Williams et al. (2009). Williams et al....
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... Receiving recognition (Vallino & Maccio, 2004) and knowing that one is loved are important to a person’s sense of existence (Yalom, 1980)....
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... When denied parental affection children risk “drifting into a sense of non-‐existence” (Vallino & Maccio, 2004, p. 74) and perceiving themselves as being unwanted, forgotten, or even annihilated....
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...The results of this study were clearly presented and comparable to Christian and D’Auria’s (1997) adolescent study....
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... Vallino and Maccio (2004) assert that it is through parents that children come to know and experience their existence....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors illustrate two clinical situations of traumatized children and adults and try to show how these kinds of patient are not able to give voice to and symbolically represent their archaic anxieties connected with their having been Ferenczian “unwelcome children.
Abstract: Starting from the concept of confusion of tongues between passion and tenderness, the authors illustrate two clinical situations of traumatized children and adults and try to show how these kinds of patient are not able to give voice to and symbolically represent their archaic anxieties connected with their having been Ferenczian “unwelcome children.” Therefore, in the therapeutic situation, they often make use of the language of “passion” and sexualization in order to communicate to the analyst their early broken intimacy and their traumatized “tenderness,” related to a lack of parental libidinal involvement and of maternal permeability to their raw emotions, which gave rise to their “passion of death.” Sketching out two clinical cases (an adolescent and an adult), the authors describe how, in their opinion, this confusion of tongues may be the only way for some patients to represent and share the traumatic events of their past, while at the same time it may become a deep-rooted, strong, rigid, a...
4 citations
Cites background from "The child's sense of existence and ..."
...The emerging self is subdued in various ways by their intrusive, extractive and alienating function, which extracts its value, parasites its investments, and hinders any new learning (Vallino, 2002; Vallino & Macció, 2004)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the role of the father in moderating problematic interactions between the mother and her child is examined, and it is shown that both harmonies and pauses, as well as interruptions and dissonances can be present in early interactive exchanges, forming the fabric of a relational piece of music that is not always as harmonious as might be desirable.
Abstract: The infant observation presented in this paper was conducted weekly for two years. Through an extensive use of clinical vignettes and personal and theoretical considerations, this article aims to highlight that both harmonies and pauses, as well as interruptions and dissonances, can be present in early interactive exchanges, forming the fabric of a relational piece of music that is not always as harmonious as might be desirable. The role of the father in moderating problematic interactions between the mother and her child is also examined.
1 citations
Cites background from "The child's sense of existence and ..."
...Through the experimentation with the child’s emotions, the mother seems to “lose her mental balance” (Vallino & Macciò, 2004, p. 73) and, in her failing to filter out the intense emotional states experienced by Lucia, a circuit of amplification is created that manifests itself through a complicated…...
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References
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01 Jan 1933
TL;DR: The Confusion of Tongues between Adults and the Child as mentioned in this paper is a classic example of the confusion between adults and children in psychoanalytic work. But it does not consider children.
Abstract: (1988). Confusion of Tongues between Adults and the Child. Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 196-206.
672 citations
Book•
15 Nov 1988
TL;DR: In the half-century since his death, the Hungarian analyst Sandor Ferenczi has amassed an influential following within the psychoanalytic community as discussed by the authors, and his diary records self-critical reflections on conventional theory and his obstinate struggle to divest himself and psychoanalysis of professional hypocrisy.
Abstract: In the half-century since his death, the Hungarian analyst Sandor Ferenczi has amassed an influential following within the psychoanalytic community. During his lifetime Ferenczi, a respected associate and intimate of Freud, unleashed widely disputed ideas that influenced greatly the evolution of modern psychoanalytic technique and practice. In a sequence of short, condensed entries, Sandor Ferenczi's Diary records self-critical reflections on conventional theory--as well as criticisms of Ferenczi's own experiments with technique--and his obstinate struggle to divest himself and psychoanalysis of professional hypocrisy. From these pages emerges a hitherto unheard voice, speaking to his heirs with startling candor and forceful originality--a voice that still resonates in the continuing debates over the nature of the relationship in psychoanalytic practice.
421 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1980
TL;DR: Ferenczi's final volume as discussed by the authors includes "Confusion of Tongues Between Children and Adults" in which he formulates his controversal ideas on childhood sexuality, and the conflict between the languages of tenderness and passion.
Abstract: This final volume includes "Confusion of Tongues Between Children and Adults" in which Ferenczi formulates his controversal ideas on childhood sexuality, and the conflict between the languages of tenderness and passion. First published in 1955, this book contains papers written by Ferenczi during his last years and some of his unpublished notes. It demonstrates Ferenczi's combination of great clinical understanding and an almost uncanny insight into unconscious process. Among the forty important items included are papers on the following: "Freud's Influence on Medicine", "Laughter", "Epileptic Fits", "Dirigible Dreams", "Philosophy and Psycho-Analysis", "Paranoia", "The Interpretation of Tunes Which Come into One's Head" and "The Genesis of Jus Primae Noctis".
298 citations
"The child's sense of existence and ..." refers background in this paper
...She can remenber, and members of her family also confirm, that as the third girl in a family without boys she was very ungraciously received (10)...
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TL;DR: In this paper, it has been shown that the life-force which rears itself against the difficulties of life has not therefore any great innate strength, and that it would only counterbalance the destructive tendencies at the age of maturity.
Abstract: On account of the dazzling effect of the impressive unfolding of growth at the beginning of life, the view has tended to be that in infants only just brought into the world the life instincts were greatly preponderant. There has been a disposition to represent the life and death instincts as a simple complementary series in which the life maximum was placed at the beginning of life, and the zero point at the most advanced age. The etiological assumption is based upon a theoretical view differing from the accepted one as to the operation of the life and death instincts at various ages. The ‘life-force’ which rears itself against the difficulties of life has not therefore any great innate strength. Corresponding to the drop in the curve of mortality and disease in middle age, the life-instinct would only counterbalance the destructive tendencies at the age of maturity.
156 citations
37 citations