Perspectives Following Klein and Bion on the Development of the Internal World: Clinical Implications

Abstract

Ed Tronick’s comprehensive theory of human development encompasses the psychological, neurobiological, and cultural to address how human beings make meaning. In addition to a large body of theoretical work and empirical studies, he has collaborated with Alexandra Harrison to develop a model of therapeutic process and change. In this article, we explore the divergences and convergences between Tronick’s theories about psychological development and psychotherapeutic process and those of Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion. We organize our exploration around three areas of interest to both Tronick and Klein: (1) the development of levels of psychic organization, from primitive to organized; (2) the way in which experience is communicated and received across these different levels, and the kind of therapeutic listening necessary to discern this; and (3) the implications for therapeutic interventions that promote psychic change. We discuss Kate, the young patient Harrison and Tronick use to illustrate their model of psychic change, to explicate some differences and commonalities in the perspectives under consideration.

Notes

¹ Persecutory anxieties refer to more primitive fears that one’s actual or imagined destructive impact on objects provokes the object to retaliate, with attendant feelings of panic, dread and fear of fragmentation. Depressive anxieties refer to the fear of losing or doing damage to one’s loved internal and external objects, with attendant feelings of sorrow, guilt, and wish to repair. Persecutory anxieties are in relation to the state of one’s own ego; depressive anxieties are in relation to the state of the object.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kay M. Long

Kay M. Long, Ph.D., Training and Supervising Analyst, Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis; and Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine.

Lindsay Clarkson

Lindsay Clarkson, M.D., Training and Supervising Analyst, Washington Center for Psychoanalysis; and Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, George Washington University Medical Center.

Shelley Rockwell

Shelley Rockwell, Ph.D., Training and Supervising Analyst, Contemporary Freudian Society.

Lynne Zeavin

Lynne Zeavin, Psy.D., Faculty, Institute for Psychoanalytic Education (NYU Medical Center); Faculty, Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR); and Editorial Board, The Psychoanalytic Quarterly; Division/Review.